Bowel Cancer

• Clinical practice guidelines for the prevention, early detection and management of colorectal cancer
• Provision of Payments
  
• CINSW Quality Improvement Toolkit– Improving Bowel Cancer Screening in your practice.

Alternative Access to Kits Model

Healthcare providers can bulk order National Bowel Cancer Screening Program kits and issue them directly to eligible patients. Providers should explain why the test is important and demonstrate how to do it. Many patients are more likely to complete the test after discussing it with a trusted healthcare provider. With your help, the alternative access to kits model is targeting people less likely to screen and those who have never screened. Once people screen for the first time we know they are more likely to keep screening.

Find out more and register here.

Demonstrations kits are available to order online for health professionals.

GP endorsement letter – Help increase cancer screening participation in your practice 

There is one evidence- based initiative which is the use of a GP endorsement letter. This is a letter that is sent out from the GP practice to the eligible population, before their 45th birthday, that is essentially, a recommendation from the practice GPs that the patient participate in the bowel screening program when the kit arrives. You play an important role in helping your patients make informed decisions about bowel cancer screening.

45-49-year-old health check (MBS item)

As has been recommended by the NBCSP and the Cancer Institute, this health check could be the perfect opportunity to discuss bowel cancer screening (which is not mentioned on some of the software templates for this health check and could be added). It may be helpful to hand out resources to improve health literacy around cancer screening programs.

Direct Access Colonoscopy

This service improves the timeliness of colonoscopies for patients with positive iFOBT. This will be done by getting rapid access to the colonoscopy lists for patients in the public hospital, using a telephone Nurse-Led clinic model. The CNC will triage the patient over the phone, meaning the patient will only need to come into hospital once, on the day of their colonoscopy.

Advantages:

• Reduced wait time between a +ve iFOBT and outpatient colonoscopy within the public hospital setting.
• Streamlined, fast effective access to colonoscopies for outpatients

Suitable referrals:

• Direct referrals from GP’s of asymptomatic +ve iFOBT patients        OR
• Patients who have had previous cancer or polyp resections, and are due for their follow-up colonoscopies.

Locations

• St George Hospital
• The Sutherland Hospital
• RPA
• Concord
• St Vincent’s Darlinghurst

For more information and referral information, please go to the Direct Access Colonoscopy page.

• How to do the test: VIDEO .This video is available in Arabic, Chinese, Greek, Italian, Korean, Tagalog, Tamil and Vietnamese.
• Translated resources are also available for patients. This include test kit instruction, information booklets and posters.
• Screening with a disability – Cervical, breast and bowel screening is important for all people, but we know that people with intellectual disability are not screened as often as they should.  FPNSW have produced screening resources for people with an intellectual disability.
• Resources for people with low vision

• Cancer Institute NSW
• National Bowel Screening Program (NBCSP)