Private screening is not the same as an NHS Healthcheck

Salisbury mentions a rise in commercial health checks contributing to extra work for general practitioners.1 Some have suggested that these are similar to routine screening offered by the NHS, such as the NHS Healthcheck. But there is a key difference. Although one could argue over the evidence base for the NHS Healthcheck, at least it measures a small number of variables (haemoglobin A1c, blood pressure, cholesterol) for a clearly defined purpose—that of cardiovascular risk estimation.The blood tests offered as part of private screening typically have no such clarity of purpose. I have had patients referred to me by private providers who have identified borderline abnormalities of liver function tests, blood count indices, C reactive protein, and vitamin B12. None of the patients had any clinical features that would have justified testing.Each of these results causes a dilemma: am I willing to accept the clinical risk of reassuring the patient that…
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