The Australian Government has mandated that all aged care staff are to receive at least their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine by 17 September.
As this date fast approaches, general practices are encouraged to prioritise aged care staff for Pfizer vaccine even when the staff member is not a regular patient. All requests for vaccination are required to be actioned within seven days.
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The Therapeutic Goods Administration has granted provisional approval to Moderna Australia Pty Ltd for its COVID-19 vaccine Spikevax.
The Moderna COVID-19 vaccine is provisionally approved in individuals 18 years of age and older, and it is recommended that the vaccine is given in two doses administered 28 days apart.
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The Australian Government has this week released a new bulletin for COVID-19 vaccination providers, including confirmation of eligibility for Pfizer vaccine, stock management, and program compliance information.
The bulletin was accompanied by a letter encouraging all vaccination sites to engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in their community.
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The Tasmanian Director of Public Health issued a COVID-19 update to Tasmanian general practices on Tuesday 17 August.
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Asthma Australia has developed an infographic to help distinguish between symptoms of hay fever, asthma, and COVID-19.
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Medical Director users are reminded that vaccination encounters without a Medicare number will not transmit to the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR).
Vaccination data: tips and tricks and other guides to assist immunisers to submit accurate data to the AIR can be found on the Primary Health Tasmania website.
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The Australian Department of Health will continue to subsidise the SMS costs for GPs issuing electronic prescription tokens to patients’ mobile phones until the end of June 2022.
However, it intends to cease the special arrangements for image-based prescriptions rolled out at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic on 30 September this year, as scheduled.
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The Tasmanian Government advises that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic means a global shortage has depleted the availability of tocilizumab in Australia, and the ability to source more from overseas.
Current Tasmanian Health Service stockholdings of IV and subcutaneous tocilizumab are only sufficient to maintain treatment of current patients for a limited time.
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As a part of the Common Referral and Assessment (CARe) project, Primary Health Tasmania - in partnership with the Department of Health, Tasmania - is undertaking a service mapping activity across the state.
Individual practitioners and community service organisations that deliver direct care or treatment in mental health, alcohol and other drug services and psychosocial support will be asked to complete an online survey to self-assess which levels of care (from level 1 to level 5) best describe their programs/services.
To access the surveys, and for more information about the project, go to the CARe project's online engagement portal.
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The Australian Government has released the landmark National Roadmap for Improving the Health of People with Intellectual Disability, which aims to address the serious health inequities faced by people with intellectual disability.
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The Australian Government and headspace have collaborated to launch a new advertising campaign designed and developed by young Indigenous Australians to promote mental health and reduce youth suicide in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
The Take a Step campaign includes resources such as a Stronger You wheel that can be printed and populated with personal comments about culture, Country, body, spirit, and more.
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Tasmanian HealthPathways has completed localising its suite of Antenatal Pathways. This suite of Pathways is categorised for ease of navigation into:
The Pathways have been extensively aligned with the latest Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists guidelines, and have been developed for the Tasmanian context with invaluable input from doctors, midwives, allied health professionals and other stakeholders across the state.
To log into Tasmanian HealthPathways, use the username connectingcare and password health.
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Inside Practice is hosting a webinar about iron deficiency, including the proactive role of primary care in management, from 7.00pm to 8.30pm on Tuesday 24 August.
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The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use will host a free webinar about motivational interviewing from 12.00pm to 1.00pm on Monday 30 August.
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Primary Health Tasmania will host a free webinar from 6.30pm to 8.00pm onThursday 2 September covering:
- an overview of domestic and family violence in primary care including insights from general practice data
- strategies for recognising and responding to domestic and family violence in your practice
- appropriate training and referral pathways.
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Musculoskeletal Australia will host the 2021 Koadlow Community Lecture, which will focus on the topic of back pain, from 7.00pm to 8.30pm on Wednesday 15 September. This is an online event.
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The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use will host a free webinar about strategies to build comorbidity capacity in alcohol and other drug services from 12.00pm to 1.00pm on Thursday 16 September.
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Hobart-based GP obstetrician Dr Emily Ware helped develop the content for the newly localised Antenatal suite of Tasmanian HealthPathways.
To do it, she drew on professional expertise in general practice, obstetrics, and gynaecology gathered from working stints in locations such as Tasmania, Melbourne, and Bangladesh.
Emily hopes local GPs will relish the different Pathways — categorised under pre-pregnancy care, antenatal care, pregnancy loss, pregnancy medical conditions, pregnancy genetics and obstetric requests — when supporting their female patients around the time of pregnancy.
“GP care, before the pregnancy, through the pregnancy, and after the pregnancy with newborns, is a special space to be working in, for both the doctor and the patient,” Emily told Primary Health Tasmania's Primary Health Matters magazine.
“Considering that the GP is providing care to the pregnant patient throughout her journey, or until she is either under the care of a private obstetrician or the hospital, that time under GP care is quite significant.”
Emily and the entire Tasmanian HealthPathways team extends its sincerest thanks and appreciation to the many health professionals whose content expertise and knowledge of local services made these Pathways possible.
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Brought to you by Primary Health Tasmania (Tasmania PHN). The information in this newsletter comes from a range of sources, and every reasonable effort is made to ensure it’s accurate. While the Australian Government helped fund this document, it has not reviewed the content. The Australian Government and Primary Health Tasmania are not responsible for any injury, loss or damage however arising from the use of or reliance on the information provided herein.
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Primary Health Tasmania · Level 2, 85 Collins Street · Hobart, Tas 7000 · Australia
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