YEAR IN REVIEW – CHAIRMAN AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT

YEAR IN REVIEW

CHAIRMAN AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT

Welcome to the VCS Foundation Annual Report for the 2020/21 financial year. This report highlights our achievements and the emerging challenges for public health organisations during another year under the cloud of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

During 2020/21 VCS Foundation has continued to deliver its high-quality services in cervical screening and other supportive routine tests, whilst becoming a key contributor to the Victorian response to COVID-19 – both as a high-volume testing laboratory and in supplying couriers to the quarantine hotels and screening clinics. The VCS Pathology laboratory increased SARS-CoV-2 testing capacity to meet the high demands that occurred during the Victorian lockdowns and outbreaks. With the unwavering support of our staff, the laboratory has seamlessly managed throughput of up to 1,500 SARS-CoV-2 tests per day, with most results provided within 24 hours, whilst continuing to maintain the very high quality of our primary cervical screening laboratory functions.

As expected, primary screening tests (HPV) continued to decline due to the transition to five-yearly cycles of HPV testing as part of the renewed National Cervical Screening Program, introduced in 2017. The switch to a longer screening interval has resulted in transitional fluctuations for volumes of tests, with 2020 and 2021 modelled as low volume years before the commencement of the next five-year cycle in December 2022. This expected reduction in cervical screening test volumes has enabled the laboratory to redirect its focus and resources to the COVID-19 response. There is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic will hamper global efforts to make HPV vaccination and HPV based screening available to all adolescents and women. VCS Foundation has continued to find innovative ways to overcome this new challenge. Self-collected HPV samples, rapid point-of-care testing and same day treatment will be critical to providing safe and cost-effective screening into the future for women living in remote communities.

Cervical screening rates fell dramatically during the pandemic, coinciding with much-needed public health measures to restrict movement and social contact. To ensure under-screened groups were not disproportionately affected by the pandemic, VCS Foundation launched an innovative initiative to assist clinicians to encourage and support underscreened patients to participate in cervical screening, offering to send home self-sampling kits to patients who were identified as under-screened during a telehealth consultation. Importantly, we designed this service to be embedded within primary care. Healthcare professionals, who also offered routine cervical screening services, ordered the home-based test and received the results, enabling them to discuss the results with their patients and provide any follow-up required. VCS Foundation continued to lead the implementation of the Victorian Government’s Cancer Screening Primary Care and Workforce Strategy 20192022, which includes the provision of education to primary care practitioners and nurses to improve adherence to cancer screening clinical guidelines across the breast, bowel and cervical screening programs and improve equity and the screening experience for under-screened participants. Due to the pandemic, our education offerings transitioned rapidly to an online model. For example, we launched an accredited online HPV Self-Collection Clinical Audit to support clinicians in encouraging eligible under-screened patients to take up this alternative test. Cancer screening clinical education webinars were delivered in partnership with Cancer Council Victoria to GPs, nurses and practice managers across the state, particularly in areas with lower screening rates and those hit hardest by the pandemic. We also led the implementation of the Victorian Government’s Cancer Screening Data and Surveillance Strategy 20192022, which includes the provision of bowel, breast and cervical screening data and reports, to support service planning, monitoring and evaluation of initiatives, improve screening participation, identify under-screened groups and to support research. We have delivered detailed reports on participation, screens, invitations, bowel kits returned, cervical self-collection and timeliness to diagnostic investigations in addition to a data dashboard providing a snapshot of key cancer screening metrics. Work continues with program partners to access relevant datasets for integration into the VCS Data and Reporting tool for reporting on screening and cancer outcomes.

The Population Health Team has continued to deliver the Participant Follow-Up Function on behalf of the Victorian Department of Health for participants who have had a positive

CHAIRMAN Mr Tim Humphries

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Professor Marion Saville AM

THE VCS PATHOLOGY LABORATORY INCREASED ITS SARS-COV-2 TESTING CAPACITY TO MEET THE HIGH DEMANDS THAT OCCURRED DURING THE VICTORIAN OUTBREAKS MANAGING THROUGHPUT OF UP TO 1,500 SARS-COV-2 TESTS PER DAY WITH MOST RESULTS PROVIDED WITHIN 24 HOURS.

bowel screening test. Despite the impact of COVID-19 and the transition to remote working, the team has been able to significantly improve the rate of follow-up of participants within 28 days, achieving results above 90%. Work to support the Compass Trial has seen agreements reached with the Australian Department of Health and the National Cancer Screening Register (NCSR) on the approach to the transfer of participant records to the NCSR as they exit the trial. This includes the interim transfer of priority participants. A new 2020-2025 Strategic Plan was developed by the Board of Directors which sets out our intention to continue to support and ramp up efforts in Australia and the Indo-Pacific region to eliminate cervical cancer. We acknowledge the need to reshape our business model to adapt to new local and global opportunities, including diversification of our pathology services and leveraging the value of our registry and vaccination digital platforms, canSCREEN® and canVAX®. The work associated with the plan is detailed in this report. BOARD MEMBERS

Dr Jane Collins stepped down as Board Chairman in 2020, one year before her tenure was due for re-election. Dr Collins continues on the Board as a long-standing Director representing General Practitioners and remains a highly valued contributor to the organisation. We thank Dr Collins for her leadership and contribution. Mr Tim Humphries has accepted the role of Chairman. Ms Fiona Kelly has accepted the role of Treasurer replacing Mr Humphries in this role. The VCS Foundation Board is committed to best practice governance principles and supporting practices. The Board has voluntarily adopted the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) Not for Profit (NFP) Governance Principles (2019) and reflects on its governance annually. The Board of Directors give their time to VCS Foundation voluntarily and we are exceptionally grateful for their expertise and guidance. Mr Tim Humphries Chairman

Professor Marion Saville, AM Executive Director