No 0812: April 24th, 2008
eNews is a weekly electronic newsletter sent to all GP practices
(with email addresses) within the
Aged Care BECC Geriatrics for GPs, Congress on Ageing
Chronic
Disease Management Diabetes and your Eyes
Professional Development CPD events
HMR Home Medicines Reviews: Medication talks to
our locals, HMR Group, Next HMR Meeting
Immunisation HPV register on its way!! Measles and Mumps around the country, Vaxigrip Junior® has been listed on the PBS
Information
Management includes Medical Director tips and New on the
Web
Items of interest Ear
Wax Clinic, Andrology
Mental Health Mental Health Nurse Program
News for Practice
Staff Practice Nurses working with Mental
Health Issues
NPS NEW
- Osteoporosis CPD, NPS Therapeutic Topic Selection Survey for 2009
Women’s Health First Steps, Community Midwives, Post Partum Perineal Trauma
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Thursday
8 May: Dr Mina Borromeo, Department of dentistry,
Thursday
15 May: Anne Marie Fabri & Dr Barbara Hayes-Respecting Patient
choices, Northern Health
Time for both sessions is 7-9pm. Light meal from 6.30pm. Venue: Northern
Division of General Practice. 4 Cat 2 points
RSVP phone 9416 7689 or Click here to access faxback flyer.
18
May at Grand Hyatt,
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People with diabetes have an increased risk of developing eye complications which,
if left untreated, can lead to poor vision and blindness. However, 98% of serious vision loss from
diabetes can be prevented with regular eye examinations and early treatment. The MBS minimum requirements of care needed to
be assessed to complete a cycle of care for patients with established diabetes
mellitus are to ensure that a comprehensive eye examination is carried out at
least once every two years. For further
information about Diabetes and your Eyes
go to www.diabetesvic.org.au – under Publications go to General Diabetes
Publications where you can download an information sheet entitled Diabetes and your Eyes. Alternatively telephone Joan Maroney at
Diabetes
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Thursday May 8, 6:30pm – 9pm (dinner provided) at John Scott Meeting
House,
Invitation to GPs, PMs, PNs and Reception Staff. Guest speaker – Dr John
Litt, is the Senior Lecturer in General Practice at
Tuesday 6th May - Respiratory Infection Update and Infection Control and Tuesday 20th May - Respiratory Infection and Immunisation, 2008
Please note participants are required to attend both sessions. Registrations
and dinner from 6:30pm Training from 7pm. At Northern Divison of General
Practice,
Invitation to GPs and PNs. Thursday June 26, 6:30pm – 9pm (dinner provided), at John Scott Meeting
House,
Austin Health - Division
of Medicine Grand Round
Endocrine Centre Of Excellence - “A Curly Genetics Case from the Women’s
Health Clinic”. Speakers: Dr Katherine Bate, Endocrinologist, Associate
Professor Sonia Grover, Gynaecologist, & Dr Nicholas Pachter, FRACP,
Clinical Geneticist, Victorian Clinical Genetics Services. Wednesday 30th April 12.10pm
John Lindell Lecture Theatre, Level 4,
Meetings are held each Tuesday starting at 12.30 in the
Lecture Theatre, Ground Floor, Pathology Building, Repatriation Hospital,
Austin Health, West Heidelberg. Lunch is provided. Course Leader: Dr Vin Nursey
Phone: 9457 1736
April 29 - Eye Conditions and Procedures in General Practice - Mr Andrew Crawford
For full term Tuesday lecture program click here
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Last week our HMR facilitator Dr Jenny Gowan spoke to 92 consumers at the Greenwood Probus Club about the Safe Use of Medicines. Participants were encouraged to ask their GPs and pharmacists questions about their medicines. Many of these people were interested in asking their GP for a Home Medicine Interview particularly to assist them with generic medicines. If you have people requesting HMRs and need any assistance please contact Dr Jenny Gowan 0417 506 944 or Noel Stewart 9496 4333. This is the fourth Probus group in the district that Jenny has been invited to speak at.
No regular meeting in May but two Bundoora Extended care meetings May 8 Oral Health and May 15 Advance Care Planning. Flyer
June 4 - Dr Peter Eizenberg - Immunisation Guidelines
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When the HPV program was announced in late 2006 there were also plans for a national HPVregister. Although it has been a long time coming, we now know that it is definitely on its way! The Victorian Cytology Service (VCS) won the tender to develop and implement this register and they are working closely with the AGPN to ensure that it is easy for GPs to use whilst still collecting all required data. The VCS is experienced in developing and maintaining a register, having kept a register of Victorian cervical cytology reports for many years. VCS is also working closely with medical software companies to ensure compatibility of online reporting requirements. VCS will begin inputting data in the near future. The process will be staggered across jurisdictions to enable an effective upload of data. You will be informed when it’s your jurisdiction’s turn. In the mean time it is important to continue to collect the data using the templates or software options found on the AGPN website under HPV register.
Most
important is the provider number and patient details including Medicare number.
There have been recent reports of outbreaks of measles and mumps in several
states around
People at risk of measles and mumps: Infants less than 12 months of age; Children over 12 months of age who have not been fully vaccinated against measles or mumps; Adults born after 1965 who have never had measles or mumps and have not had 2 MMR doses; In Australia, these diseases are most often seen in unimmunised or under-immunised people who have recently travelled to a developing country where measles is endemic or there has been a mumps outbreak.
Key actions to be taken: Watchout for measles or mumps in susceptible patients; Isolate suspected cases, ring the public health unit and arrange urgent tests; Make sure that you and your staff are immune.
These outbreaks serve as a good reminder about the importance of
immunisation. Although measles is rare in
Vaxigrip Junior® has been listed on the PBS
This has apparently caused some confusion as there have been a number of calls
to DHS to order Vaxigrip Junior®. When a vaccine is added to the National
Immunisation Program, it becomes free to those eligible and is available by
ordering through DHS. However, when a vaccine is listed on the PBS it means
that the government subsidises the vaccine, like any other drug. A GP would
still write a script for the vaccine, and the patient would be able to buy it
at chemist price. Thus “If you are a general patient, from 1 January 2008 you
pay up to $31.30 for most prescription medicines supplied through the PBS
(concessional patients pay only $5.00). These payments, called patient
co-payments, are revised annually in line with the Consumer Price Index.” as
the price for Vaxigrip Junior®, is under the threshold of $31.30, it will cost
approx $21.00 on script, or $5.00 on script with a concession card. So
clinics could still hold private stock if they wanted, and then just send those
with a concession card to the chemist as the practice would not be able to
supply for $5.00. If you would like any further info on the PBS you can go to http://www.pbs.gov.au/html/consumer/pbs/about
.
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Click in the Obstetric tab (female patients only) and click once on the pregnancy. Click on the Record visit button and enter the values.
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RVEEH is currently investigating the possibility of establishing an ear wax
clinic to provide a skills program for health providers in the management of
patients with a chronic wax problem. One of the objectives would be to develop
evidence based management and referral guidelines. In the meantime, I would
like to highlight an article that was published in the Australian Family
Physician in March 2003 on the ‘Potential
Pitfalls of Ear Syringing’. You can
access or download the article at http://www.gpdownsouth.com.au/images/ear.pdf.
Further enquiries may be made to Dr Lina Nido, GP Liaison Officer at the Royal
Victorian Eye and
‘Engaging Men In General Practice’ is a FREE video conference workshop for
GPs during International Men’s Health Week 2008. The aim of the workshop is to
provide new knowledge and communication strategies for GPs to effectively
engage men in discussing their health and wellbeing including sensitive issues.
*Registrations are essential: *To participate in person at the Host Site (
The Division has arranged for a series of GP Summary Guides on the
management of male sexual and reproductive health, published by Andrology
Up There Cazaly Medical Centre has 2 rooms to rent - Thursday, Friday,
Saturday, Sunday - for any health provider. Contact Candice McGrath, Practice
Manager, on 5786 1388.
Now open - The Stables Consulting Rooms, 248b Queens Parade, Clifton Hill specializing in psychiatric and psychological care. Appointments are currently available with Dr Michelle Boldt, Consultant Psychiatrist with an interest in Eating Disorders; Dr Christopher Corcos, Consultant Psychiatrist with an interest in substance abuse, adjustment disorders, mood disorders and treatment resistant depression; Dr Gaurav Deva, Consultant Psychiatrist sees patients for individual psychotherapy, mood, anxiety and psychotic disorders; Penelope Lane, Clinical Psychologist is a generalist who treats depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, somatic disorders and life issues; and Lucy O’Neill, Clinical Psychologist who specializes in peri- and post-partum mood disorders. Please telephone 9445 0560 for further information or appointments.
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On April 21st 2008 Janine Nedelkos, Mental Health Nurse, commenced full time work with the Division. Janine is a resource available to you, at no cost to you or your patients, in your mental health work. Janine can regularly review patients mental state, administer, monitor and ensure compliance with medication, liaise with families and carers, see the patient in an outreach capacity, and take responsibility for service coordination. Eligible patients for Janine’s services will be functionally disabled by their severe mental illness and will consent to the nurse’s involvement. Janine is able to spend focused time with those patients that require more support than you are able to provide. She is also able to link them into to the mental health service system and coordinate their care according to your mental health plan.
For more information please call Nicky Bisogni, Mental Health Program Officer, at the Division on 9496 4333.
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This session will provide an excellent opportunity to meet your local mental health service providers and for you to:
learn more about their mental health services – who they are, what they do, what patients they provide service to and how to refer to them
learn how prevalent are mental health issues
learn how to identify mental health issues
learn how to manage risk
learn how to navigate the mental health services
Small group learning: Three case studies will be discussed which will include examples of relevant pathways and appropriate referrals.
Tuesday May 13, 6:30pm – 9pm (dinner provided), John Scott Meeting House, La Trobe University, Bundoora (Entry via Car Park 7). Application Form
See under CPD for upcoming events
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The NPS & HMR groups are offering a Case Study CPD evening session on May 21st with Professor Peter Ebling looking at ‘Preventing osteoporosis and reducing fracture risk’. The session covers current topical issues including osteonecrosis of the jaw, how long to treat and the long term risks and benefits of bisphosphonate therapy.
Contact Dr Mary Levidiotis on 9496 4333 or mary@nevdgp.org.au for information. Download enrolment form.
The NPS is currently surveying member organisations, working group members
and other experts and stakeholders, including GPs, on topics of interested for
the 2009 divisional programs. If you are interested in contributing to
this important task we would welcome your opinion. The NPS Prescribing Intervention Working Group
(PIWG) will use your feedback in the topic selection process at their planning
meeting in early June 2008. Your input is an important part of NPS program
planning and on behalf of NPS the division thanks you for your valuable
feedback. The survey documentation can be found here.
Note this needs to be faxed back to the division by May 12th 2008.
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For patients who are you a young parent, or expectant parent, to meet other
young people to share experiences of caring for children. To participate in a
group work program to share their experiences of childhood and their experiences
of caring for children. First Steps runs for approximately three hours per week
over eight weekly sessions. Teaching about early childhood development, health,
safety and creative play with babies, toddlers and pre-schoolers. To register,
or for more information contact: Sharleen Cook on 9433
0933 or Michelle Hawke on: 9450 0916. To
be held in the Child Care Room at the Banyule Community Health Centre,
Banyule Community Health provides a confidential outreach service for
pregnant women in Banyule. We provide a comprehensive, client focused range of
birthing services to women with complex needs and their families. Community
Midwives provide a range of services to support women during their pregnancy
and after the birth of their baby Community Midwives are located at
NB Change of date Tuesday 6th May 7 - 9pm
(refreshments from 6.30pm) at Lecture Theatre, Level 4,
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Please
note: only new ads, paid ads or resubmitted ads will be posted here. All other
ads can be found on the website
Ivanhoe
Medical Clinic - Sessions for PT or FT VR GP, large supportive group (9
GPs), FT nurses, computerized, EPCs, no A/Hs, friendly, flexible, mixed
billing. Contact:- Dr.Stephen Smith or Dr.David Doig on 9499 1245
South Morang
Medical Centre - GP VR required for privately owned accredited practice in
Experienced Practice Nurse (Div 1) - requires position in a GP clinic. Experience in
wound care management, Accredited Nurse Immuniser, able to do ECGs, diabetes
education, health assessments etc. Also has experience in the hospital setting
and district nursing. Please contact Amy on 0417 117
078.
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Mother Superior called all the nuns together and said to them,
'I must tell you all something. We have a case of gonorrhoea in the
convent.'
'Thank God,' said an elderly nun at the back. 'I'm so tired of chardonnay.'
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