The value of NHS screening is not based on sketchy blueprints - The Guardian 11th January 2008

Patient monitoring has already proven itself invaluable - and doctors like it too, says Joe Rafferty From the reaction to Gordon Brown's promise of a national screening programme - with electrocardiograms, blood tests and ultrasounds in GP surgeries - you'd be forgiven for thinking that this was a radical new idea. The Guardian's leader column reported that "there was a guarded response to No 10's talk of everyone being given a 'health MOT' ", commenting on "the sketchiness of the blueprint for universal preventative check-ups" (Dr Brown's medicine, January 8). In fact, the blueprint is far from sketchy. There are many highly effective, preventive screening programmes already taking place in GP surgeries. These initiatives show how lives and NHS money can be saved in practice, not in theory, and are getting a hugely positive response from clinicians and patients.

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Additional Stories

Lancet savages Gordon Brown's NHS plans - The Telegraph 11th January 2008

Gordon Brown's 'feeble' NHS vision - The Telegraph 11th January 2008