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| PM unveils health screening plan | PM unveils health screening plan |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| Patients in England will be offered screening for early signs of heart disease, stroke and kidney disease, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said. | Patients in England will be offered screening for early signs of heart disease, stroke and kidney disease, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said. |
| Such conditions affect about 6m Britons and patients in at-risk groups will be invited to be screened by their GP. | |
| Mr Brown said in future NHS care should focus on prevention and not just cure. | |
| But the British Medical Association asked how conditions being diagnosed by the screening would be treated when funding had been cut back. | |
| In a speech later he will also outline plans for more diagnostic tests in GP surgeries, such as blood tests, electro-cardiograms and ultrasounds to cut waiting times. | |
| It remains one of the most trusted organisations in British society, its doctors, nurses and staff recognised by everyone as a force for good in our country. Gordon Brown | It remains one of the most trusted organisations in British society, its doctors, nurses and staff recognised by everyone as a force for good in our country. Gordon Brown |
| Mr Brown told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "There are 200,000 deaths a year from heart and stroke disease. | |
| "Many of them, indeed probably most of them, avoidable if we did the right things." | "Many of them, indeed probably most of them, avoidable if we did the right things." |
| He said screening for those was "only the start" with extended screening for breast cancer for women, preventative vaccines against cervical cancer and "far more" being done in relation to aneurysms. | He said screening for those was "only the start" with extended screening for breast cancer for women, preventative vaccines against cervical cancer and "far more" being done in relation to aneurysms. |
| "The whole nature of this is that the health service has really got to change in its next 60 years from being the curative service - where it's done so much good - to being also a preventative service and one that's not simply a uniform service, but personal to people's needs," said Mr Brown. | "The whole nature of this is that the health service has really got to change in its next 60 years from being the curative service - where it's done so much good - to being also a preventative service and one that's not simply a uniform service, but personal to people's needs," said Mr Brown. |
| "So you get to see the doctor you want at the time you want and the hospital you want, but also a health service organised around your needs and at the same time, of course, the preventative work." | "So you get to see the doctor you want at the time you want and the hospital you want, but also a health service organised around your needs and at the same time, of course, the preventative work." |
| Take up | |
| Initially the tests will be available to the most "vulnerable", and money has been set aside to pay for the procedures in the health budget for 2008-11, said Mr Brown. | |
| But he admitted that he did "not yet know how many people will want to take this up" because, as with the NHS' preventative vaccinations' programme, there are large numbers who will not do so. | |
| He said the government planned to use advertising to "persuade people" to take the tests. | |
| In his speech, Mr Brown will say vascular screening, to be introduced this year or early in 2009, will include a series of blood, fat and sugar tests in GP surgeries. | |
| One test for early abdominal aortic aneurysm - the weakening of the main artery from heart to abdomen - could save as many as 1,600 lives each year. | One test for early abdominal aortic aneurysm - the weakening of the main artery from heart to abdomen - could save as many as 1,600 lives each year. |
| Reform | |
| The prime minister will emphasise that "renewal" of the NHS will be the government's highest priority. | The prime minister will emphasise that "renewal" of the NHS will be the government's highest priority. |
| "It remains one of the most trusted organisations in British society, its doctors, nurses and staff recognised by everyone as a force for good in our country." | "It remains one of the most trusted organisations in British society, its doctors, nurses and staff recognised by everyone as a force for good in our country." |
| He will add that the aim is "deeper and wider reform" to create an NHS "that is here for all of us but personal to each of us". | He will add that the aim is "deeper and wider reform" to create an NHS "that is here for all of us but personal to each of us". |
| But Dr Richard Vautrey, deputy chairman of the GPs committee at the British Medical Association, said: "What I do find extraordinary is just two or three weeks ago the prime minister insisted that funding be taken away from the treatment of patients with heart failure, hardening of the arteries and kidney disease - the very conditions that he's now proposing to screen for." | |
| Mr Brown's decision to make his first big speech of the year on health follows Conservative leader David Cameron's speech last week in which he set out proposals which he hoped would lead to the Tories becoming the party of the NHS. | |