This webinar recording, presented by registered psychologist, Sharee Johnson, focuses on the COVID-19 pandemic. It explores practical strategies to combat information overload, fatigue and burnout for health professionals and looks at ways to manage anxiety and stress for themselves and their patients during these uncharted times.

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The Department of Health has provided information regarding the requirement for a patient signature for billing and a clinician signature when using e-requesting of pathology, including the need for a pathology request to be signed by the clinician, and for a patient's written consent for a bulk-billed procedure.

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The Gastroenterology Society of Australia (GESA) has notified ACRRM that this Program has been suspended until 30 September 2020.

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The National Cervical Screening Program is encouraging healthcare providers to continue to offer routine screening and follow up.

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As of 20 April 2020, specialist and allied health service providers are no longer required to bulk bill telehealth items. Providers are expected to obtain informed financial consent from patients prior to providing the service; providing details regarding their fees, including any out-of-pocket costs.

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RANZCR has released a position statement on the appropriate use of CT during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in relation to patients undergoing emergency surgery.

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ACRRM is proud to be a major supporter of ‘Gowns for Doctors’, a voluntary project coordinated by two Bendigo GPs who are making and delivering gowns to support health workers during the COVID-19 PPE crisis. ACRRM support will see up to 1000 additional gowns being created and sent to practices in rural and regional Victoria – with a strong potential for the project to go national.

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The Australian Commission on Quality and Safety in Health Care has published a range of resources to support cancer care services to implement the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards.

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With over 1300 providers offering telehealth at either the patient or distant end of the consultation, the ACRRM telehealth provider directory is one of the most comprehensive multiple speciality directories’ in Australia and is used extensively in rural and remote general practice. The directory can be searched by speciality or region and includes information about visiting specialists and those offering mentorship in running a telehealth service.

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The National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce has launched the new “living guidelines”. These guidelines will provide evidence-based guidance to clinicians caring for people with COVID-19.

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The Department of Health has reported that, based on forecast demand from the states and territories, it is well placed to meet forecast demand for influenza vaccine, including for the National Immunisation Program and to respond to any increased demand that may arise this year.

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As more cases of COVID-19 are confirmed in rural and remote areas, the widening of bulk-billed telehealth to the whole population - and a doubling of the bulk-billed incentive for all consultations - is greatly welcomed.

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The My Health Record system supports rural doctors in the coordination of healthcare for their most vulnerable patients. Clinical Professor Meredith Makeham says, “the system has provided a supporting role in bushfires and the Queensland floods and can now assist with COVID-19 patients by enabling GPs to provide key health information to hospitals, pharmacies and the patient via a shared health summary”.

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The government’s commitment to increase the number of masks and Point of Care Testing kits to General Practice, will help combat the COVID-19 pandemic, ACRRM President Dr Ewen McPhee says.

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To assist general practices and in line with COVID-19 social distancing measures, the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (the Commission) is maintaining requirements for accreditation.

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The College has been invited to provide feedback about the planned proposal to amend the relevant state legislation to enable prescriptions to be provided in an approved electronic form, consistent with the Commonwealth framework and the National Digital Health Strategy. A fact sheet is attached. Please provide any feedback to policy@acrrm.org.au by Wednesday 1 April 2020.

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We live in extraordinary times. One could be forgiven for wishing we could skip 2020 altogether for it has been a year of firsts in most unfortunate ways with significant bushfires over Christmas, and now the threat of Pandemic SARS-COV-2.

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Due to a limited supply, the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA) is calling for all clinicians, GPs and healthcare providers to conserve the utilisation of all swabs, by limiting any unnecessary or non-urgent testing, such as for chronic leg ulcers.

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The College has been asked to pass on the following message from RANZCR: RANZCR fully recognises the key role of frontline general practitioners in management of this pandemic. We are seeing a rapid increase in the number of confirmed and suspected COVID–19 patients in recent days and would like to request your help in order to protect them, our other patients and practice staff to ensure continuity of our ability to provide healthcare services to our community.

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The College has a responsibility to our members, staff and stakeholders to do our part to remove or reduce any personal risks to them. Therefore, we have decided to take the following unprecedented steps in relation to how we will conduct ACRRM business in the short term.

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