Summary
Date: 1 July 2022
The Department of Health sought feedback from key stakeholders in relation to their public consultation paper for the review of the Phase 4 of the National Bowel Screening Program (the Program).
The RACGP response highlights several risks that require consideration in the Program to improve patient participation including:
- the impact of long public hospital waiting lists for colonoscopy
- the need to improve standardised colonoscopy care in Australia.
It highlights:
- the importance of evidence-based guidelines to inform health professional care and follow-up
- the need for a system that identifies and links colonoscopy results from specialists into a registry that can be accessed from GP electronic medical record systems, like the National Cancer Screening Register.