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medpundit |
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Tuesday, August 30, 2005The NHS is scrupulous in the screening it offers. Disregarding tests done on newborns, pregnant woman and the very old, the only two screening tests routinely offered to healthy people are for breast and cervical cancer. Bowel cancer will follow soon. These are diseases with proven tests and evidence that catching them early does some good. No screening for diabetes or high cholesterol or prostate cancer? That's interesting. Here in the States we take it as a given that screening for future disease saves lives (and money by preventing complications), but the evidence isn't necessarily there for every disease. (I'm willing to bet the NHS screens for diabetes and high cholesterol, too. They just didn't rate a mention because the screening process doesn't require a procedure other than a blood sample.) UPDATE: This doesn't bode well: Hope you are right about NHS and diabetes. On the other hand, I know that in Canada when her doctor suspected that some of my sister's symptoms were consistent with diabetes, it required 1-2 months of waiting for an in-hospital (her Dr. was not certified for such a procedure) "glucose-strip" check of her blood glucose... Yikes. posted by Sydney on 8/30/2005 10:19:00 PM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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