Routine heart screening tests are utilised by doctors in huge numbers every year across the country in order to search for signs of heart problems and heart disease, but now a new study is warning that this screening may be a complete waste of time and NHS resources.
Currently anyone who is aged between 40 and 74 can be screened at the doctor’s discretion. But that may change following the publication of the findings by Cambridge University researchers in the highly prestigious British Medical Journal.
The screenings are part of a 2008 Department of Health initiative that is aimed to not only help save lives but also save on the long-term costs of dealing with heart problems once they have developed.
The scheme is said to cost somewhere around £250 million and involves the testing of blood, which is extracted by a nurse and is used to search for problems such as kidney disease, diabetes, heart disease and indications of a stroke.
The research by Dr Simon Griffin at the MRC epidemiology unit in Cambridge, seems to indicate that the testing will not reach its goals of preventing nearly 10,000 strokes or heart attacks each year.
The findings of the study indicate that the age range should be cut down to people between 50 and 74, and should only be available for people who have completed a questionnaire that deals with their lifestyle and heart attack or heart disease probabilities.
The research suggests that the “heart disease risk questionnaire” will be effective in indicating those that are at high risk, thus avoiding the testing of patients in an ad hoc manner, and therefore targeting the testing where it is most needed.
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