The Tasmanian Chief Medical Officer has written to GPs with information about Evusheld (tixagevimab/cilgavemab) pre-exposure prophylaxis in groups of patients at high risk for COVID-19.

The information includes a notification and dispensing form, the Australian Product Information document, and the Consumer Medicine Information summary.

• assessing risk of COVID-19 in aged care
• symptom management for patients in aged care with mild to moderate COVID-19
• medication management in aged care while mitigating COVID-19: separate resources relating to cardiovascular diseases, delirium, diabetes, immunodeficiency, polypharmacy and respiratory conditions.

Australia's Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Professor Michael Kidd, has answered some common questions about COVID-19 in this video resource, which may help health professionals answer questions from their patients. They relate to:

• what long COVID is, and what we know about it
• whether long COVID is becoming more common
• whether vaccines reduce the likelihood of getting long COVID.

The Australian Government Department of Health issued a COVID-19 bulletin to primary care vaccination providers on 25 May covering topics including:

• expanded ATAGI recommendations on winter COVID-19 booster doses
• maintaining cold chain requirements when transferring vaccines off site
• the process for ordering vaccines.

The Tasmanian Government issued an update to general practices on Tuesday 24 May about early season influenza.

The update includes information on respiratory virus testing and flu vaccine recommendations.

As part of the Australian Government Department of Health's winter preparedness plan, packs of Tamiflu (osteltamivir) are being pre-deployed to all residential aged care facilities this week.

This is being pre-placed to ensure access to supplies at the beginning of the flu season. Additional supplies will need to be sourced through normal arrangements via community pharmacies. More information here.

The Australian Government has developed a range of resources to help raise awareness of the importance of influenza vaccination for children under 5 years of age.

The resources include a poster and fact sheet. There is also a 'Help stop the flu in 2022' brochure about the importance of flu vaccination among the broader population. 

The Tasmanian Government issued an update to general practices on Friday 20 May with key points about the Monkeypox viral infection, including symptoms and how to manage a suspected case.

Australia's acting Chief Medical Officer, Dr Sonya Bennett, issued an update the same day which urged Australians to be aware of the virus.

On Monday 23 May, the Australian Government Department of Health held a webinar for primary healthcare professionals on the same topic. The recording is available here. 

The Australian Immunisation Handbook website and mobile app have been upgraded, with improvements to navigation, bookmarking and content layout.

The National Immunisation Catch-up Calculator (NICCC), which supports providers to plan catch-up vaccination for children under 10 years, has been upgraded to include children with medical at-risk conditions.

The Closing the Gap PBS Co-payment Program is available to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of any age who are registered with Medicare, and in the opinion of a prescriber or Aboriginal Health Practitioner:

• would experience setbacks in the prevention or ongoing management of a condition if they did not take the prescribed medicine, and 
• are unlikely to adhere to their medicine regimen without assistance through the program.

Any prescriber or Aboriginal Health Practitioner can register eligible Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for the program via the Services Australia Health Professional Online Services portal. People who were already registered as at 30 June 2021 do not need to be re-registered. More information here.

The Tasmanian Department of Health launched its Digital Health Transformation strategy this week. 

The State Government's Our Healthcare Future paper identifies a set of health challenges facing Tasmania and Tasmanians. The Digital Health Transformation strategy deals with the role of digital technology in helping solve these challenges, and lays out a set of initiatives to be delivered over a 10-year period. 

Primary Health Tasmania will work closely with the Department to ensure the needs and issues of the primary care sector are considered in the implementation of the strategy.

The Federal Street Pain Clinic and Insight Physio in Hobart advise they are continuing to provide rehabilitation for people with persistent and complex pain needs now that their pain medicine consultant is moving interstate.

Experienced pain physiotherapists and pain psychologists will continue to accept referrals to address patients' physical and psychological needs using evidence-based biopsychosocial assessment and holistic management.

The Tasmanian Department of Health advises children immunised with MenACWY before the age of 14 years are currently not recognised by the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR) as being up to date with that vaccine.

Only 1 dose is required after 14 years, although there is some evidence of this dose efficacy waning after 5 years. Parents can make use of the Australian Government-funded dose of Men ACWY in the school program to make sure they are covered as their children move into their higher risk years of adolescence. More information here.

The Australian Government Department of Veterans' Affairs has provided funding for a capped number of fully funded training licences for nurses and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander primary healthcare workers who have patients participating in the Coordinated Veterans’ Care (CVC) program.

Care coordinators need to apply to the Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association before 21 June to access a training licence for free, however the modules can be completed at any time and at your own pace. More information here.

The Australian Digital Health Agency is offering a new range of webinars on digital health, My Health Record, electronic prescribing and more.

For specific training and resources within your area of practice - including CPD-accredited courses - go to this web page.  

The Royal Hobart Hospital Research Foundation is providing free face-to-face Healthy Conversations Skills training for primary healthcare professionals as part of its Healthy Pregnancy project.

The training will be held in Hobart over two half days on Tuesday 21 and 28 June, Friday 24 June and 1 July, or Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 June. Email michelle.kilpatrick@utas.edu.au to register your interest. 

This free two-event webinar series featuring microbiologist and infection prevention and control educator Marg Jennings targets practice nurses, administration staff and allied health professionals working in a general practice setting.

The first event will be held from 6.30pm to 7.30pm on Wednesday 1 June and will cover standard and transmission-based precautions, hand hygiene, understanding modes of transmission, and suitable personal protective equipment (PPE).

The second event will be held on Wednesday 8 June. These events have been organised by Primary Health Tasmania.

The Australian Centre for the Prevention of Cervical Cancer (ACPCC) is holding a free webinar from 6pm to 7pm on Tuesday 7 June on cervical screening, covering universal access to self-collection and optimising the screening experience for people with an intellectual disability.

This is an RACGP CPD activity attracting 2 CPD points.

The Macular Disease Foundation Australia is holding a webinar at 7pm on Tuesday 7 June touching on important diabetic eye disease information for GPs, including how they can best assist patients.

This is an RACGP CPD activity attracting 2 CPD points.

The Australian Centre for the Prevention of Cervical Cancer (ACPCC) is holding a webinar from 6pm to 7pm on Wednesday 22 June on meeting the cancer screening needs of the LGBTQA+ community. The webinar will cover breast, bowel and cervical cancer screening. 

This is an RACGP CPD activity attracting 2 CPD points.

The Royal Hospital for Women is seeking medical professionals to participate in a 10-minute online questionnaire regarding uterus transplantation for fertility treatment.

The study will allow the uterus transplant team to collect information about which components of the process would improve the acceptability of uterine transplantation, in order to move this innovation closer to reality in the clinical setting. 

You can complete the questionnaire here.