27 May 2024
Eligible age lowering of the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program
The Government has announced that from 1 July 2024 it is lowering the eligible screening age for the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program from 50 to 45. This means that people aged 45 to 49 can now join the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program by requesting their first free bowel cancer screening kit at www.ncsr.gov.au/boweltest.
This change comes off the back of recent updates to colorectal cancer clinical guidelines which recommend population bowel cancer screening be offered to people from the age of 45. People aged 50 to 74 who are due to screen will continue to receive their free kit in the mail every two years. All eligible people aged 45 to 74 can also ask their doctor about getting a kit.
Learn more about the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program at www.health.gov.au/nbcsp.
Learn more about the Clinical practice guidelines for the prevention, early detection, and management of colorectal cancer at www.cancer.org.au/go/clinical-guidelines-bowel.
Cervical Screening National Campaign: Is your practice ready to support the choice?
Join us for our next Quality Improvement webinar series on increasing Cervical Cancer Screening Rates (including self-collection) at your practice.
Two campaigns are commencing in 2024 to promote cervical screening and the self-collection option for cervical screening. We expect the campaigns will lead to increased demand for cervical screening and particularly the self-collect option, particularly as self-collection may be a more sensitive and acceptable option for under-screened patients.
For more information contact:
EMPHN quality improvement and digital enablement team: digitalhealth@emphn.org.au.
EMPHN practice support: practicesupport@emphn.org.au.
