Chronic Wound Consumables Scheme

About the CWCS

The CWCS will help eligible patients manage their chronic wounds by covering the full cost of products a patient needs to heal, such as bandages, dressings and adhesives.

The CWCS is patient-centred and will enable an authorised health professional to enrol an eligible patient to participate in the scheme and order fully subsidised wound consumable products through an on-line portal or over the phone. The ordered products would then be delivered to the patient’s home to support ongoing wound management by the patient.

See the CWCS product list.

About chronic wounds

Chronic wounds are wounds that have not progressed through normal healing stages in 30 days. They heal slower and often only heal partially, and they may recur.

Why it is important

Chronic wounds impact a person’s quality of life and require long-term care. This has a significant burden on our healthcare system.

Currently, most patients must pay the full cost of wound consumable products. These costs can put significant financial pressure on people. This can lead to patients delaying care.

The CWCS will ensure patients can get the wound care they need when they need it.

How it will work

A patient with a chronic wound will go to an eligible health professional, who will assess the wound and order the required wound care products for their patient through an online portal.

The health professional will be able to choose from various wound care products listed in the online portal.

Ordered wound care products will be delivered to a patient’s home or the health professional's office, at no cost to the patient.

Eligibility

Eligible participants

The CWCS will support people with diabetes with a chronic wound who are:

aged over 65 years
a First Nations person aged 50 years or over.

Patients are not eligible for this scheme if they receive wound care or funding through:

the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)
the Department of Veterans' Affairs rehabilitation and treatment programs, including Repatriation Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (RPBS) dressings
Australian Government-funded residential aged care homes, Home Care Packages or the Community Home Support Program
public or community wound clinics run by or on behalf of state and territory governments that fund wound care products
public and private hospitals – including post-operative and outpatient care.

Eligible health professionals

Health professionals will be eligible if they are:

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health practitioners
medical practitioners in a primary care setting, including general practitioners
registered nurses and nurse practitioners
podiatrists.

Eligible health professionals will need to complete specified training to use the online portal.

Health professional training

Monash University has developed specific health professional training and education packages to support best practice chronic wound care management.

To access the CWCS scheme and online ordering portal, health professionals are required to complete this training.

Enrol and complete the training.

For enquiries about the training, including problems accessing the program, please email cwcs-training@monash.edu

Once you have completed training, you will be provided with a completion certificate and a link to the Department of Services Australia PRODA site, where you will be able to register for the CWCS portal.

Training can also be used for continuing professional development purposes.

If you have any problems with PRODA please visit Services Australia’s Health Professionals website for CWCS registration instructions or contact them on 1800 700 199, option 3.

Supporting activities

Extra activities, complement to this scheme, will support improved wound healing outcomes across the community.

Advanced training scholarships

We fund the Australian College of Nurses to provide a scholarship for nurses and Aboriginal health workers to complete formal training in wound care.

The grant will provide:

at least 120 scholarships each year for advanced training short courses for nurses
5 scholarships for graduate certificates in wound care
1 scholarship for a Masters of Wound Care course.

Find out more information about the scholarships and training.

Public awareness campaign

We fund Wounds Australia to deliver a national education and awareness campaign on chronic wound prevention and treatment. The campaign will aim to improve public awareness and patient knowledge of how to care for wounds to give them the best chance to heal.

Find out more about the Wounds Australia public awareness campaign, Be Wounds Aware.