For the health workforce, in particular those working and supporting Aboriginal women, who work with clinical staff or have access to information in a clinical setting, below are some key points from the Cancer Institute NSW Primary Care Cancer Control Quality Improvement Toolkit regarding identification of women who are due or overdue for cervical screening. 

Team approach

• Clinical staff (eg. Practice manager, GP, Practice nurse, reception staff) all play an important role in improving cervical screening participation rates. Involve the team from the outset so that everyone understands the benefits of and can contribute their ideas to improve cervical screening participation. 
• Establish baseline cervical screening participation rates as a team. Documenting your baseline will allow your practice to track improvements over time as a result of cervical screening quality improvement activities. 

Data and systems

• Data cleaning will help to increase the accuracy of cervical screening participation information recorded by your practice. Ensure your patient list is up to date by deactivating inactive patients.  
• Consider the data audit tools available that can extract and analyse your practice-level data on screening participation. This can help to identify patients who are due (or overdue) for cervical screening. 
• Practice software helps to manage patient records and may also have functions to produce lists of patients who are due (or overdue) for cervical screening. 
• Records of patients who are due or overdue for cervical screening can be sent to the National Cancer Screening Register (NCSR) via the Healthcare Provider Portal. The NCSR will send back the pathology results for any women (whose Medicare number has been provided by the practice) who have recorded results. This will enable your practice to identify and focus on women who are overdue for cervical screening.  
• For help with accessing the National Cancer Screening Register (NCSR), an appointment with a NCSR specialist can be booked through the following link: https://outlook.office365.com/owa/calendar/TelstraHealthNCSR@health.telstra.com/bookings/ 

Further information

Cancer Institute has developed a Quality Improvement resource to assist with improving cervical screening participation.

The work that practices undertake as part of the toolkit can contribute to their eligibility for the Practice Incentive Program Quality Improvement Incentive for cervical screening. 

For further support with cervical screening data and quality improvement, contact your Primary Health Network (PHN).