Brown promises to expand health screening

|PIC1|Free screening for stroke, diabetes, heart and kidney disease is to be introduced over the next three years under plans for the National Health Service unveiled by Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Monday.

Tests such as blood screening, electrocardiograms and ultrasound will become available in GP surgeries rather than hospitals, in a drive to promote preventative health care.

"Over time, everyone in Britain will have access to the right preventative health check-up," Brown said in a speech marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the NHS.

Renewal of the health service will be the government's highest priority.

Brown promised a more personal and preventative service that "intervenes earlier, with more information and control put more quickly into the hands of patient and clinician."

In a series of interviews ahead of the speech, Brown said the screening will start with vulnerable groups, such as the elderly, who need it most.

Cases of stroke, diabetes, heart and kidney disease account for a fifth of all hospital admissions. Around 6.2 million people suffer from these conditions which cause 200,000 deaths a year.

But the British Medical Association, which speaks for doctors, said the government was cutting funding to support patients with a number of conditions including heart problems, kidney disease and hardening of arteries.

"Today the government says it is going to screen for these very conditions," Richard Vautrey, of the BMA's GP committee, told BBC television.

"The government's health policy simply doesn't join all the dots together."

Conservative Health Spokesman Andrew Lansley said Brown was chasing headlines instead of well-planned policies for the NHS.

"There is no proper timetable for delivery, we don't know where the money's coming from but we do know Brown has raided public health budgets," he said.

Previous pledges by the government to extend preventative care -- particularly in encouraging more healthy lifestyles -- have foundered, with some of the money allocated being spent plugging budget gaps elsewhere in the NHS.

In 2006, the government's Chief Medical Officer Liam Donaldson warned that "raiding public health budgets can kill".

He said a fully engaged public health programme could increase life expectancy for men by 2.9 years and 2.5 years for women.