May 2018
Dear Women’s Cancer Screening Collaborative Practices
To keep you informed of what is happening in the WCSC here is the May Update!
The Breast Screen Australia Conference 2018
Did you know the North Coast Primary Health Network(NCPHN) showcased the work of the Women’s Cancer Screening Collaborative(WCSC) at the BreastScreen Australia Conference recently?
The conference, held in Adelaide, provided valuable learning and networking opportunities, and enabled the sharing of projects and ideas from across Australia.
Dr Jo-Anne Adendorff (pictured at the lectern) who has been working closely with the WCSC represented the NCPHN and commented “Theopportunity to present the work of dedicated practices and key stakeholders from the North Coast regionin women’s cancer screening at such an exciting and well respected platform was so important”.
It was important to promote the close partnership approach the WCSC has taken withBreastScreen NSW North Coast and how this approach has improved primary care engagementin breast screening in the region. The NCPHN was also able to demonstrate the work being undertaken with support from Cancer Institute NSW whilst building its knowledge, capacity and networks to better support primary care providers in the North Coast to support early detection of breast cancer.
If you would like any more information please contact
The WCSC Learning Workshops
Since October 2017, the WCSC has been involved in conducting consumer insight research exploring the personal, social and cultural barriers and enablers for women in the NSW north coast region for participating in breast and cervical screening. The NCPHN engaged a Consultant to support the consumer insight research work. The findings indicated there are very low levels of health literacy and understanding in the community about women’s cancer screening and the cancer screening programs. The information gathered from this research was fed back to practices via the recent Learning Workshops in March and April 2018.
The Consultant identified some key priority areas and prepared recommendations which may support improving participation rates in women’s cancer screening across the north coast region of NSW.
During the recent Workshops the participating practices were asked to prioritise these recommendations. They were asked which recommendations would support the greatest improvement in participation rates, and which recommendations would support “Reaching the Hardest to Reach Patients” and “Making Positive Change Permanent”.
This information can be found on the WCSC website under ‘Workshops’. Go to
Further work is underway to support WCSC participating agencies to build at-risk women's engagement in screening and to improve health literacy levels and understanding.
If you would like any more information please contact