Weekly COVID-19 GP Webinars

GPs and practice managers from across south eastern Melbourne attended our most recent GP webinar on Thursday 7 May.  

Guest Terri Smith, BreastScreen Victoria (BSV) CEO updated attendees on how BreastScreen is recommencing its services from Monday 11 May, including:

Free support for patients with severe/complex mental health conditions

Do you have patients with severe mental illness and complex needs who require co-ordination of their care and can’t afford services?

Referrals have opened up in the Local Government Areas of Stonnington, Glen Eira, Kingston and Bayside for SEMPHN’s free (funded) Mental Health Integrated Complex Care (MHICC) service, delivered by Star Health.

Appointments are currently by phone, video and limited face-to-face appointments.

Fax a referral and GP Mental Health Treatment Plan to 1300 354 053 or call SEMPHN Access & Referral on 1800 862 363 (8.30am-4.30pm).

 Patients can also self-refer.

Find more information, clinical software templates and referral forms here or call Belinda Bruno on 0422 379 858.

Referrals open: ResetLife - alcohol and other drug treatment program

Do you have patients experiencing addiction? The ResetLife program is currently open for referrals. 

ResetLife is a free, intensive outpatient Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) treatment program, for people who live or work in south eastern Melbourne.

The ResetLife program involves 16 weeks of structured, intensive outpatient treatment followed by 36 weeks of continuing care. 

Services delivering the ResetLife program:

• Peninsula health in Frankston
• FirstStep in Port Phillip
• TaskForce offers ResetLife youth across south eastern Melbourne (based in Moorabbin)

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the program is available via phone, video or limited face-to-face sessions (only offered by Peninsula Health).

To refer, call SEMPHN's Access & Referral team on 1800 862 232, or fax 1300 354 053. 

Please note: to refer to ResetLife youth, contact TaskForce directly on 9532 0811.

Electronic Prescriptions – are you ready?

The fast-tracked version of ePrescribing will be available to prescribers and pharmacies by the end of May. ePrescribing has strong safety and efficiency benefits for clinicians, and it should make prescription management with telehealth a lot easier.

To ensure your practice is set up to start using ePrescribing as soon as it is available, your practice needs to:

1. Have a Healthcare Provider Identifier – Organisation (HPI-O) and be connected to the Healthcare Identifiers Service.
2. Install a Prescription Exchange Service for the Electronic Transfer of prescriptions for all your prescribers.
3. Update to an ePrescribing capable version of your clinical software. Your vendor should be in touch with you about when their system is likely to be ready.

As well as the guidance in the links above, you can also contact SEMPHN's Digital Health team on  03 8514 4460 or email digitalhealth@semphn.org.au to find out more.

Video consultations with VideoCall

A reminder that SEMPHN can provide the VideoCall platform for free if you are billing the MBS telehealth items. VideoCall makes the workflow easier, using a link that the patient clicks on to enter a virtual 'waiting room'.

If you've read the HealthVitalIT guidance on remote consultations and your clinical team wants to use video consultations, get in touch with our team, who can explain more about it and can register your clinic: 03 8514 4460 or digitalhealth@semphn.org.au. 

Practice Nurses, join us tomorrow to learn more about adapting to the COVID world

Join us for the SEMPHN Practice Nurse Webinar on Tuesday 12 May 6.30-7.30pm.

We will to hear from Leeanne Judd on how nurses in the practice are adapting to the COVID world.

Then, Lesley Pugh and Rebekah Cox from APNA will join to look at supervision of ENs and scope of practice in this environment.

We encourage you to submit any questions you may have prior to the event as there will be limited capability to ask questions on the night. Add your questions on registration or by emailing events@semphn.org.au.

Register here. 

Practice Managers, this webinar is for especially for you!

Practice managers, you're invited to join us online at 12.30pm - 13.30pm, 13 May, to share practical tips on how to adapt to new circumstances in your general practice. 

Riwka Hagen and Kim Poyner will answer all your questions on how to adjust the business of general practice to accommodate the new and changing world of working in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The session will run purely as questions and answers and we encourage you to ask your question(s) on registration or by emailing events@semphn.org.au.

The topics that can be covered include:

• Federal stimulus package 
• MBS item numbers
• Telehealth 
• How to manage flu season
• Patient numbers attending the practice.

There will be limited opportunities to ask a questions on the day by typing into the Q&A function of the webinar.

Free urology webinars for general practice

ArmchairMedical.tv is offering free access to general practitioners to listen to webinars are lectures on urology as relevant to general practice. 

On 16 May, a five hour series of 18 lectures will become available. Lectures are included from from UroGP, a meeting hosted by Department of Urology and University of Melbourne Department of Surgery and Austin Hospital.

Topics include:

• The Penis - Impotency
• Premature ejaculation
• Peyronie's disease
• Vasectomy and Vasectomy reversal
• Sacral neuromodulation
• and much more.

Once accessed, the lectures will be available for a few weeks to watch whenever it suits you best. 

Date: 16 May
Register: here
Cost: Free for GPs

Don't forget there are localised pathways available for urology in south eastern Melbourne. Access SEMPHN's urology pathway here. 

Tips for using technology in mental health consultations (webinar)

Produced by the Mental Health Professionals’ Network, on behalf of the Victorian and Tasmanian PHN Alliance this webinar aims to support practitioners in successfully delivering mental health services by telephone, teleconferencing and/or videoconferencing.

Join the webinar to better understand the opportunities, challenges and risks in conducting mental health consultations by telephone and/or videoconferencing, and to learn practical strategies for improving outcomes for both practitioner and client - including establishing and maintaining a therapeutic relationship with clients via this technology.

The webinar will feature a facilitated discussion of an interdisciplinary panel of subject matter experts:

• Ms Tessa Moriarty (mental health nurse),
• Dr Monica Moore (GP and psychotherapist); and
• Mr David Xuereb (psychologist);
• in a discussion facilitated by Professor Mark Creamer (clinical psychologist).

Questions? Call MHPN on 1800 209 031 or email webinars@mhpn.org.au

When: 18 May, 7.15 pm - 8.30 pm
Where: Online
Register here

SafeScript - Tackling the Difficult Conversations

SafeScript presents an opportunity to reduce harms associated with high-risk medications, to promote quality use of medicines and to support patients with substance use disorders such as opioid dependence.  Join us for this live Webinar to learn more about how to navigate the honest, and sometimes difficult, conversations which have the potential to make a significant difference in the lives and health outcomes of your patients.

This webinar will take into consideration changes to practice due to COVID-19, such as physical distancing and telehealth, and the current mandatory SafeScript period. 

Topics and Speakers 

• Prescribing Suboxone to manage opioid dependence in primary care - Dr David Jacka, Addiction Medicine Specialist at Monash Drug and Alcohol Service
• Effective conversation strategies to address substance misuse - Dr Anne Marie Diggins, GP and Area 4 Pharmacotherapy Network GP Mentor
• SafeScript-related role-plays and case-based discussions - Dr Ferghal Armstrong, GP and Addiction Medicine Registrar at Turning Point, Eastern Health

When: 26 May,  7pm - 9pm. 
Where: Online
Register here.