Step 7: Check for cervical screening results

This section covers the following steps:

Step 7.1 Use your data audit tool or practice software to extract a list of eligible patients overdue for cervical screening, along with their Medicare number

Step 7.2 Send this list to the National Cancer Screening Register (NCSR) for review

Step 7.3 Identify patients eligible for Self-Collected Cervical Screening Test to PEN CS table

Women sometimes prefer to go to someone other than their usual doctor to undertake cervical screening. This means that, on occasion, your practice will not receive your patient’s cervical screening result and she may incorrectly appear as overdue for screening in your records.

Your practice has the option of extracting a list of patients (and their Medicare numbers) that your records show are overdue for cervical screening, and sending this list to the National Cancer Screening Register (NCSR).

The NCSR will send back the pathology results for any of the women who have recorded results. This will allow you to identify the women who are up to date with their screening and focus on the women who actually are overdue.

“One of our practices took the initiative to send a list of the 134 patients who appeared as overdue for cervical screening in their system to the National Cancer Screening Register (NCSR). When they got the results back from the NCSR, they found that 73 of these patients had current cervical screening results recorded. This enabled them to update these patients’ files and focus their efforts on the remaining 61 patients who were overdue. It was a great result and an easy win for the practice.”

- Kath Duggan, Integrated Health care Officer, Hunter New England and Central Coast Primary Health Network

Step 7.1 Use your data audit tool or practice software to extract a list of eligible patients overdue for cervical screening, along with their Medicare number

Software provider	How to extract a list of patients overdue for cervical screening with their Medicare number
CAT4	Cancer screening - reminder workflow
Genie	The patients menu
ZedMed	Management reports

Step 7.2 Send this list to the National Cancer Screening Register (NCSR) for review

The NCSR will advise which patients have attended screening. They can’t provide this information without the patient’s Medicare number. Call the NCSR on 1800 627 701 for more information.

Step 7.3 Identify patients eligible fo a Self-Collected Cervical Screening Test

Self-collected Cervical Screening Tests were introduced in January 2018 as a pathway for under screened women in Victoria through the National Cervical Screening Program.
Self-collected Cervical Screening Tests are only available to women who:
• are aged 30 and over; and
• are either overdue for a Cervical Screening Test by two years or longer, or have never been screened; and
• have declined a Cervical Screening Test fr om a health professional.