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1. NSAMS Consultation Workshops

The development of the National Strategic Approach to Maternity Services (NSAMS) will soon begin round 2 of consultation.

The consultation will involve face to face workshops, an online survey and opportunity to submit online responses. In addition, there will also be a series of webinars to enable greater access for those in rural and remote areas or those unable to attend face to face workshops. Information regarding these webinars will be provided in the near future.

Registrations for these consultations are now OPEN. The Perth Workshop is scheduled for 15 October 2018, and Bunbury 6 November 2018.

Register here

Once you register, attendees will be notified whether their registration has been successful and provided with the venue location and details. Registrants will be provided with the draft strategy as background reading and any other relevant documentation the week prior to the workshop commencing.

2. Maternity care in General Practice – RACGP position statement

This statement was recently released by RACGP. It details the college’s belief in the vital role general practice plays in the provision of maternity care in communities throughout Australia.   View the statement here.

Many thanks to those GPOs who attended the GPO Think Tank on 23^rd March.  A summary of the discussion and an Action List have now been compiled and are available here.

National Strategic Approach to Maternity Services Consultation, 6 June 2018 

I attended this meeting along with 4 other GP obstetricians: Bek Ledingham (Broome), Chieh Cheng (Albany), Clare Matthews (Osborne Park Hospital), Kath Comparti (Narrogin). There were a number of midwives, hospital administrators, and consumers also in attendance. Megan Galbally, perinatal psychiatrist from KEMH and Colleen Bradford from WAGPET were also there. No obstetricians attended unfortunately. It was a fairly broad agenda, with lots of small group discussions around the gaps in Maternity Services in Australia and the priorities for the future. The main themes that came out were transparency of practice, communication and collaboration between health care providers, appropriate education for consumers and health practitioners, and supporting families in rural and remote to access services. There wasn’t really an opportunity to explore anything in great detail unfortunately. It will be interesting to see what the final paper looks like, and whether any action is actually taken. I’ll forward the final consultation paper on to the Network once I receive it, but this won’t be for a few months. If you wish to keep an eye on its progress, here is the website link.

Sarah Moore
WAGPON Coordinator

The past couple of months have been busy for GPOs in WA, with the RANZCOG RSM in Bunker Bay at the end of April and the O&G update at KEMH last weekend. It has been really great to meet with many of you face to face and hear about the local issues facing GPOs across WA.

Below is some information that I gathered at the O&G update at KEMH that I thought would be worth sharing.

Health Pathways WA

https://waproject.healthpathways.org.au/

All GPs have access to this useful resource that has local guidelines and referral pathways for a range of presentations seen commonly in General Practice, including obstetrics and gynaecology. You will need to login to gain access, so follow the instructions on the home page to receive your login details.

Pre-conception mental health advice for women

The CAMI clinic is available to provide telehealth consultations to GPs and their patients to discuss pre-conception advice on management of psychiatric conditions. To arrange a consultation, contact the CAMI clinic via KEMH switchboard on 6458 2222.

Self-collected Cervical Screening Test

Self- collection is available now at no cost to never and under-screened women across Australia.  Eligible women are thirty and over, more than two years overdue (i.e. four or more since last Pap) or never screened, and who refuse when offered a clinician collected specimen.

For more details, please read Chapter 6 of the NCSP guidelines for everything you need to know about self-collection.  For a clear explanation, please watch this video (tip: search for ‘newsGP self-collection video’ in Google).  Further info on sending self-collected samples to VCS and resources can be found here.

KEMH electronic discharge summaries

GPs who are not currently enrolled to receive electronic discharge summaries can contact the current KEMH NaCS administrator Stoina Grozdanovski. Phone (08) 6458 1301

You will need to provide the following information:

• Your Practice details – Practice name, address, phone number, fax number
• A list of all current GPs at your practice including their Provider Numbers
• Your Practice’s EDI code for secure electronic transmission, which can be obtained from your secure messaging provider

If you are enrolled and you experience a problem with receiving discharge summaries electronically, please contact your secure messaging provider’s help desk in the first instance

Sarah Moore
WAGPON Coordinator