Ordering National Bowel Cancer Screening kits for your patients

What is the aim of this QI activity 

• Get set up to order National Bowel Cancer Screening program kits to your practice, ready to hand out to patients.  

• Over the next 8 weeks, identify two patients each week who are eligible or overdue for bowel cancer screening. Offer these patients a National Bowel Cancer Screening Program kit. 

What will I need to do?

• Register for access to the National Cancer Screening Register Healthcare Provider through PRODA and bulk order kits. 

How will I complete this activity?

• Use Primary Sense to identify eligible and overdue patients.

• Start handing out National Bowel Cancer Screening program kits to your patients and encourage them to complete the screening test. 

Where do I document my results?

• Quality Improvement Register 

• Bowel screening target poster 

• Manual tally kit tracker document 

• Optional resource: MFI/PDSA template 

Who can I contact for support?

If you have any issues utilising the National Cancer Screening Register Healthcare Provider Portal, you can contact Telstra Health Technical support on 1800 627 701 

Or you can book a convenient time to receive a call back: 

NCSR: Registration Help Booking Link

If you have any issues within your clinical software, contact your software vendor. 

For support with this activity please contact the General Practice Quality Improvement team on Ph. 38647540 or email support@bsphn.org.au 

1. Register for access to the National Cancer Screening Register Healthcare Provider (HCP) Portal

Register for access here if your practice has not already done so.

It is also recommended that you integrate your clinical software for easier access to the National Cancer Screening Register. 

2. Read the training guide

Get training to help you adopt and promote screening in your practice.

3. Order the free kits through the portal

How to bulk order the National Bowel Cancer Screening Kits 

You can also order the kits via phone by calling the National Cancer Screening Register on 1800 627 701. Have your practice details ready and a GP provider number. 

4. Hand out kits to eligible patients

Follow the instructions below to print the participant details form. It is imperative that the participant details are printed and handed to the patient along with the kit. The form can be printed through the Healthcare Provider Portal or through the NCSR Hub in your clinical software. 

Healthcare Provider Portal: Healthcare Provider Portal – Bowel Screening: Issue bowel test kits to eligible patients - YouTube

See below for details to support with handing out kits using Best Practice software:

National Cancer Screening Register Hub in Best Practice (part 5):

Best Practice support materials | National Cancer Screening Register

Once you complete and submit the ‘Bowel Kit Issued by Healthcare Provider’ form in Best Practice, you will need to navigate back to the NCSR history tab to print. The form will be titled ‘Print/Re print Participant Details form’. Open the form and print. 

See below for details to support with handing out kits using Medical Director software: 

National Cancer Screening Register Hub in Medical Director (Walkthrough video -part 5): MedicalDirector support materials | National Cancer Screening Register 

Once you complete and submit the ‘Bowel Kit Issued by Healthcare Provider’ form in Medical Director, you will need to navigate back to the NCSR history tab. Click on ‘Print/Re print Participant Details’ form, click download, open the download then click on the print icon to print. 

5. Order Resources if required

 Access resources to support your patients, including an expanded range for First Nations people to promote participation in the program.

6. Set a Goal 

Once the kits have arrived, set a goal to hand out 2 kits per week over an 8-week period. 

7. Identify overdue and eligible patients 

Use the Primary Sense “Bowel and Breast Cancer Screening Report” to identify eligible and overdue patients. Use the “existing appointment” column to easily identify patients with an upcoming appointment.

Note: Remember to review both the male and female report.

For more information about using the Primary Sense report, watch this video: https://youtu.be/WLgr3rginKc (video created by Gold Coast Primary Health Network). 

8. Make a note in the appointment calendar 

Once you have identified which patients are eligible or overdue, you might like to make a note in the appointment calendar prompting the clinical team to discuss bowel cancer screening with the person and offering them a kit to take home. 

Tip: 45-49 Health assessments are a great opportunity to talk about bowel cancer screening. Make sure you have a prompt in your template to remind you to discuss bowel cancer screening and offer a national program kit if eligible.

Suggested measures:

• Manually record the number of patients offered a kit over the timeframe of the activity 

• Give each participating clinician the manual tally document (see attachment) to help keep track of the number of patients offered a kit over the timeframe of the activity 

Manual Tally National Bowel Cancer Screening Program .docx

See some examples: 

Document results: 

You can use the tracking posters to record results and display them in the treatment room or lunchroom so that team members can see the impact of their changes. You can also document your progress on this activity in a QI summary register or MFI/PDSA. 

How did you go? 

• How many kits did you hand out? 

• Have you developed any new processes?  

• What were the challenges? 

• Celebrate your achievements!  

• What would you like to do in the future?