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 yesterday.

Diagnostic procedures such as blood screening, electrocardiograms and ultrasound will become available in family doctor 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 will say 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.

He will promise 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 media interviews ahead, Brown said the screening would start with vulnerable groups, such as the elderly, who need it most.

The announcement came after a coalition of specialists warned that Britain's aged-care system was in desperate need of an overhaul.

As the post-war baby boomer generation heads towards pensionable age, the 15-member "Caring Choices" coalition said the present system would buckle unless dramatic reforms are made.

The consortium, comprising caring and welfare groups, insurers, think-tanks and council bodies, urged the government to overhaul current funding practices so that future generations are not left weakened and vulnerable.

In a report entitled The Future of Care Funding - Time for a Change, the group described the current system as not fit for purpose and unsustainable as the numbers of elderly people living in Britain is expected to rise by 50 percent in the next two decades.

Their conclusions, based on the opinions of more than 700 experts, criticized the use of "postcode lottery" and means-testing style of distribution of funding.

The report, led by charity the King's Fund, think-tank The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) and welfare groups Help the Aged and Age Concern, called for better support for carers - especially unpaid ones - and the introduction of a part "user-pays" system to help cope with budgets.

The study, backed by other organizations including the Local Government Association and the NHS Confederation, also urged a rethink on means-testing, saying funding priorities should not just be given to people most in need but be spread more evenly across the community.

Agencies

(China Daily 01/08/2008 page10)