Our system

Promoting health and preventing disease

Cancer screening participation rates:

38%

bowel

52%

breast

50%

cervical

Increasing cancer screening rates to save lives

Darling Downs and West Moreton PHN has identified cancer screening as an area of focus for our region following a significant reduction in breast and cervical screening rates due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with bowel cancer screening rates falling below the national average.

Twenty-one local general practices were involved in the Cancer Screening Initiative in partnership with the Queensland Health Cancer Screening Unit. The initiative aimed to increase local cancer screening participation rates.

The initiative achieved:

4-7%

increase in the participation rate of active patients in each screening program.

15%

approximate increase (around 1,300 to 1,500) in the number of people who participated in cancer screening programs.

Protecting our workforce

In our region, 118 practices participated in the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. Our PHN distributed large quantities of personal protective equipment (PPE) to help protect the health and safety of health professionals while delivering vaccinations. PPE was delivered to general practices, respiratory clinics, pharmacies, allied health professionals and AMSs across our region.

Read more about how we protected our workforce as they responded to COVID-19 on the Increasing workforce capacity page.

Increasing community vaccination rates

Since the beginning of the pandemic, our PHN worked with schools, aged care, disability providers and with vulnerable groups to increase vaccination rates within our community. The vaccination rollout continued into this year, and we focused our efforts on vulnerable and hard-to-reach members of our community.

VaxBuses

Our PHN ran three community vaccination buses ‘VaxBuses’ during the year which delivered 921 COVID-19 and flu vaccine doses to the community. The vaccination bus approach removes barriers to accessing vaccination, like transport or distance to health services. All vaccines were provided at no cost to the community, and no bookings were required. The buses were operated by Oceana and Aspen Medical.

921

Vaccine

doses

95%+

Two dose COVID-19 vaccination in Goondiwindi, Southern Downs, Toowoomba, South Burnett and Ipswich

56

Scheduled

stops made

During the year our PHN ran three vaccination buses, the Bush VaxBus, West Moreton VaxConvoy and Winter VaxBus.

Vaccination Hubs

Our PHN ran several vaccination hubs throughout the year. This included four Essential Worker Vaccination Hubs that facilitated the prioritisation of essential workers, with a focus on primary care. Our PHN also continued to work in partnership with disability service providers, RACFs and primary care connections to provide vulnerable members of our community with access.

All boosters in RACFs were completed by February 2021.

Engaging with our communities via TALK ABOUT

Our PHN continued our TALK ABOUT campaigns throughout the year as a way to engage with the community about their experiences with primary health care. We wanted to know what’s working well and what could be done better.

For 2021-2022, four topics were selected for the community and health professionals to provide feedback on through a short, five-minute survey each quarter. These surveys will continue into the new year. What we hear from our TALK ABOUT topics is incorporated into our Health Needs Assessment, our reporting, and shared with our committees, providers, staff, and community members.