To the Editor: The National Bowel Cancer Screening Program (NBCSP) sees general practitioners as “critical partners”,1 but has not really involved or supported GPs, who have personal frequent contact with a large proportion of the NBCSP's target population. GP endorsement increases uptake,2,3 but the NBCSP does not fund GPs to send reminder letters to their patients.
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- 1. Grogan PB, Olver IN. A bowel cancer screening plan at last [editorial]. Med J Aust 2014; 201: 435-436. <MJA full text>
- 2. Hewitson P, Ward AM, Heneghan C, et al. Primary care endorsement letter and a patient leaflet to improve participation in colorectal cancer screening: results of a factorial randomised trial. Br J Cancer 2011; 105: 475-480. doi: 10.1038/bjc.2011.255.
- 3. Zajac IT, Whibley AH, Cole SR, et al. Endorsement by the primary care practitioner consistently improves participation in screening for colorectal cancer: a longitudinal analysis. J Med Screen 2010; 17: 19-24.
- 4. Frank OR, Stocks NP, Aylward P. Patient acceptance and perceived utility of pre-consultation prevention summaries and reminders in general practice: pilot study. BMC Fam Pract 2011; 12: 40. doi: 10.1186/1471-2296-12-40.
- 5. Frank O, Aylward P, Stocks N. Development of pre-consultation prevention summary and reminder sheets for patients: preliminary study of acceptability and sustainability. Aust Fam Physician 2014; 43: 310-314.
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Oliver Frank is the GP representative on the South Australian State Reference Group of the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program and receives remuneration from SA Health for attending meetings of this group.