News

Dear Practitioners

SWEP have been working with our Clinical Advisors to ensure we have measures in place to support our consumers and practitioners as we navigate the challenges presenting with the COVID virus.

Wherever possible, compliance to TSANZ Position Paper recommendations for home oxygen supply should be maintained. We do understand that some services are now being prioritized around COVID-19 and are implementing processes to ensure your patients are not at risk and that we ensure continuity of supply with oxygen equipment.

Dear Practitioners

SWEP have been working to ensure we have measures in place to support our consumers and Practitioners as we navigate the challenges presenting with the COVID pandemic.

Wherever possible, compliance with SWEP normal processes should be adhered to. SWEP recognises that many organisations will not be operating within business as usual practice.

SWEP are implementing processes to ensure our consumers are not compromised and that we ensure continuity of supply for continence items where we can.

Dear AT Practitioner

This communique includes information for you about:

• What can be funded by the Victorian Aids & Equipment Program (VA&EP)
• Clarification about fitting and shipping charges
• Use of the SWEP quotation template
• Changes to inclusion of AOPA registration number on quotation template (where relevant) 'Grandfather' clause for applications received prior to January 1, 2020.

This communique follows on from the information we provided to you in late November 2019. We
received valuable feedback at that time and wish to provide some further updates. We hope this makes
it clearer to understand what you can apply for and who is eligible for assistance through VA&EP. SWEP
is committed to providing equitable access to eligible Victorians across all equipment categories and
these changes have been made accordingly.

Annually we ask consumers, after they have received and used their Assistive Technology, to tell us how satisfied they are overall with their SWEP experience

We have again exceeded our target of at least 85% satisfaction rate as set by the Department of Health and Human Services and this has been our best year ever!

Click here to see the full results

The Lymphoedema Practitioners Education Group of Victoria

Invites you to a Continuing Professional Development event.

SWEP is committed to ongoing quality and improvement, and we are pleased to advise that we have reviewed and updated The Standard for registration and credentialing with SWEP. We believe these changes will make it much easier for practitioners to understand what is required of them and to navigate the resources and application types. 

This Standard has been released and is now published on the SWEP website https://swep.bhs.org.au

Dear AT Practitioner

We are writing to you to clarify Victorian Aids & Equipment Program (VA&EP) funding availability for the Orthoses category.

We have reviewed current practice in relation to our orthoses application management following the release of the VA&EP Operational Policies (July 2019) and the SWEP team's organisational restructure. In addition, we have consulted with professional associations and our Clinical Advisors.

The Statewide Equipment Program (SWEP) is committed to providing consumers with access to a range of assistive technology items that are evidence based and suitable for various environments and presenting scenarios  

As per our communique released on the 25th of September, SWEP have partnered with the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) to provide a registration and credentialing service for all Occupational Therapists (OT's) currently providing services to the TAC. 

As part of this service, the TAC have access to a SWEP 'geo-locator' tool that facilitates the matching of suitably qualified and skilled OT's with TAC consumers.

Change of Date - Independence Australia Closure 8th Nov - 12th Nov 2019

Further to our communique released on the 15th of October, SWEP have been notified that the upgrade of Independence Australias online web store has now been delayed until November.

Dear Continence Practitioners,                       

On the 29th August, I wrote to you advising that SWEP was unable to fund open tip / supra-plus catheters for urethral use if this was not part of the items' TGA approval or manufacturer guidelines.

Some of you have raised concerns about how this might impact your clients who have had a lot of success with these catheters being used urethrally.

Independence Australia Closure 18^th  - 22^nd October 2019

Independence Australia have advised that they will be updating their online web store this month. As a result, the online store and Customer Service Centre will be closed from 4pm on Friday the 18th of October and will reopen at 8am on Tuesday the 22nd of October 2019.

What's happening?

SWEP has been advised of a recall of the below listed items