New notification system makes task easier for GPs
Doctors around Western Australia will find it easier to meet their public health responsibilities with the implementation of a new system of notifying infectious diseases to the Health Department.
Under the new system, country medical practitioners can now report notifiable diseases directly to their regional public health unit, while metropolitan doctors continue to notify the central Communicable Disease Control Program.
A simplified and self-explanatory notification form can be sent to secure fax machines at local offices, and urgent cases can be reported by telephone.
Doctors can continue to notify by post as usual.
Communicable Disease Control medical co-ordinator Dr Lewis Marshall said the new system would help strengthen the ties between medical practitioners and public health authorities in the control of infectious disease.
Communicable Diseases Control Program staff members Carol Cheney and John Markovich discuss the new system with then CDPC medical epidemiologist Dr Dorothy Jones
"In the past, doctors may have found notification an unwelcome and distracting task, which took them away from the main concerns of their practice," Dr Marshall said.
"The new simplified, standard-sized form is very easy to fill in, with user-friendly boxes to tick, and can be faxed, posted or telephoned in to the local public health office.
"Laboratory confirmation of a condition is not always necessary. Practitioners are urged to notify us of their clinical diagnoses as well, so that we can begin investigations and, if necessary, implement the sort of simple prophylactic interventions that save lives."
Dr Marshall said that Western Australia did not currently have notifications issued automatically from the laboratory which identified the infection.
"This places considerable responsibility on doctors, to keep the information flowing, so that we can track the occurrence of disease and begin swift, effective preventative measures," he said.
"The new system will also enhance longer term disease control programs, with improved surveillance giving us a better understanding of disease patterns and enabling us to devise more effective long-term strategies to bring disease rates down."
Dr Marshall said the revised system marked a new sense of partnership between public health authorities and clinical practitioners.
"The system has been developed in close consultation with medical pracitioners, building on the links established since the de-centralisation of public health units in 1993," he said.
"We have reached a milestone of understanding that prompt notification is in everyone’s best interests—especially those of the community we all serve."
Comments or queries regarding the notification system are welcome and can be directed to Dr Marshall on (09) 388 4999 or to regional directors of public health.
