What do your patients think of telehealth?

General practice and allied health practices using Healthdirect’s VideoCall platform are invited to participate in a University of Melbourne research study to explore patient views of video consultation use in primary care.

What is involved?

We will help you add a link to a survey within VideoCall that your patients are automatically directed to at the end of the consultation. Once the survey is set up, there is minimal other involvement. Surveys will be available to patients commencing October and concluding in December.

What will services receive?

All participating practices will be provided with practice level survey results. The analysis includes an understanding of patient preferences for video consultation or face to face consultations, and their experiences of the video consult process. All participants will be provided with the research findings.

To register your interest

Contact our Digital Health team at  digitalhealth@semphn.org.au  or 03 8514 4460

Do you know young people struggling with alcohol or other drug use?

TaskForce operates ResetLife, a free intensive outpatient program, supporting young people to address alcohol and other drug issues.

Operating from the TaskForce Youth Hub in Moorabbin and funded by the South Eastern Melbourne PHN, the ResetLife program supports young people aged 11-16 and 17-22 through 16 weeks of intensive treatment, followed by 36 weeks of continuing care.

During the intensive period, participants will attend three sessions per week and will engage in individual and group sessions. Young people’s parents and family will also be supported with sessions during the intensive period.

To ensure everybody’s safety, rather than holding in-person sessions, TaskForce will discuss with clients and their families what communication platform is best for them. This may be Zoom, Skype, other online services or phone calls. 

ResetLife is an evidence-based program that has shown significant results for young people.

ResetLife is free of charge to people who live or work in South Eastern Melbourne. Clients can self-refer, or referrals can come from family, GPs, or anyone else with client consent.

Please contact Amanda Mack the Key Supervisor on resetlife@taskforce.org.au or amandam@taskforce.org.au or call 03 9532 0811 or 0434 412 858 to refer or for more information.

Electronic GP referral to Monash Health & Monash Children's Clinic

If your practice has the following clinical software installed, you can send electronic referrals now.

• Medical Director (version 3.16 and above)
• Best Practice (version 9x and above)
• Genie (version 8.8 and above)
• Medtech (version 10.4)

Benefits for General Practitioners

• Entirely free and already available at your practice
• Efficient and straightforward referral process
• Referrals processed more rapidly, improving the timeliness of care
• Enhanced security of referral information
• Seamless integration with existing clinical information systems
• Electronic acknowledgement that the referral has been received by Monash Health

Please refer to the Monash Health eReferral Website for further information on how to make a referral.

If you have any difficulties using HealthLink Smartforms, please contact HealthLink Technical
Support on 1800 125 036 or helpdesk@healthlink.net

Early Medical Abortion: Follow Up and Managing a Complication Post Procedure (Webinar) 

This event builds on an earlier session (delivered on 8 September 2020) on the clinical and practice considerations for early medical abortion service delivery and the referral pathways for providers in the local area. 

The focus of this event is on the best practice management of follow up and complication post-procedure.

Presenters

• Dr Paddy Moore, Head of Abortion and Contraception services, The Royal Women's Hospital
• Dr Sarah Jeffs, General Practitioner

When: Tuesday, 17 November, 7 pm - 8.30 pm 
CPD: 2 RACGP CPD Activity Points
Who: GPs, nurses, pharmacists
Platform: Zoom Webinar
Register here

A collection of immunisation resources for health professionals

1. The Catch-Up Calculator

Catch-up vaccination schedules help those who are not up to date with vaccination to achieve optimal protection in the shortest but most effective time-frame.

The National Immunisation Catch-up Calculator (NICC) Version 1.1, located in the Australian Immunisation Handbook, can help providers in creating catch-up vaccination schedules for children aged <10 years.

The calculator generates a printable summary with the vaccines outstanding and the timing of these vaccines on the basis of previous vaccinations received, medical conditions and whether the child is an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander.

Please note: this calculator currently does not recommend vaccines for at risk conditions such as prematurity or the seasonal NIP influenza vaccines for 6 months to <5 years.

The catch-up vaccination section of the Handbook has numerous catch-up resources, including infographics and tables, to help providers develop other age-appropriate catch-up vaccination schedules.

2. NCIRS National Immunisation Program Schedules

On 1 July 2020, several changes were made to the National Immunisation Program Schedule. NCIRS has developed four tables summarising immunisation recommendations for all states. Please ensure you check the recommendations for Victoria, click here to view the resource. 

Don’t forget, SEMPHN have a recording from Dr Peter Eizenburg’s webinar on the immunisation resource page.

• Immunisation NIP update with Dr Peter Eizenberg

3. Have you tried the Immunisation Coalition website?

They are a champion for immunisation education and provide timely informed information about vaccines and the disease they prevent.

Available resources:

• Fact Sheets
• Guides for Health Care Professionals
• Webinars
• Videos

Do you have a de-identified case you would like to discuss?

Join your peers and other health professionals during an informal half-hour catch up and case discussions via Zoom.

The sessions will cover client/patient case studies where you will be able to hear the perspectives of all disciplines and sectors with the first one focusing on a person’s health journey during lockdown in the region.

This will provide a great opportunity to share what is happening in the region across all sectors as well as connect with the broader healthcare and social care community.

Date: Tuesday, 20 October 2020
Time: 1 pm - 1.30pm
Where: Online via Zoom.
Register here. 

Would you like to join the Integrated Care CoP Microsoft Team? The latest question on the MS Team relates to helping people access IT for telehealth but this would also be relevant for social programs as well.  To opt into the MS Team please contact Kay at K.fiddes@alfred.org.au

Will you be eligible to sit the RACGP Fellowship exams when the rules change in January 2022?​

If you’re a non-vocationally registered doctor, the answer is probably no. But there’s still time to change that.

Start your journey to RACGP Fellowship now with the Practice Experience Program (PEP). You’ll have access to A1 Medicare rebates, an online learning program and support from an experienced team of medical educators and a training organisation. And most importantly, you’ll remain eligible to sit exams.​

Unlock your practice potential and apply for the PEP before 22 October 2020. For more information, visit www.racgp.org.au/pep