PM to announce national health screening programme
7 January 2008
A groundbreaking programme to screen people for conditions such as heart problems, stroke, diabetes and kidney disease will be unveiled by Gordon Brown today.
Speaking to Sky News this morning, the PM said the Health Service was ready to move to a "new age" with the introduction of diagnostic tests to improve the nation's health. More details will be revealed later today in the PM's first major speech on the NHS.
The PM said:
"What people want is a Health Service that's more personal to their needs and we've set aside money in our Health Service allocation for the next three years to gradually introduce this national screening that'll enable people to make the choice.
"So we're moving the Health Service in to a new age, it's about preventing disease, it's about a service personal to your needs...now we can move on to the next stage which is a healthier nation and giving people more opportunities that sometimes have only been available in private medicine before."
In today's speech the Prime Minister will explain that new screening tests will help combat serious conditions which affect the lives of 6.2 million people, cause 200,000 deaths each year and account for a fifth of all hospital admissions.
In the next few months, Health Secretary Alan Johnson will set out plans to introduce procedures to identify vulnerability to a range of heart and circulation problems. As many as 1,600 lives could be saved each year by offering men at 65 a simple ultrasound test for early abdominal aortic aneurysm, also known as "triple A".
A summary and transcript of the speech will be available later today.
Image copyright: Reuters
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