Prime minister Gordon Brown said this month that the DoH would offer all men over 65 ultrasound tests to detect abdominal aortic aneurysm early. Some 3,000 lives are lost to the condition in England each year.
Research published by the Cochrane Library last year showed that ultrasound screening halved the number of ruptures in men aged 65–79, although it had no such benefit among women.
Pilot schemes are to be set up in five centres by the end of the year and by 2013, the DoH wants 60 centres to be operational — providing the one-off test to 32,000 men.
RCN Practice Nurse Association chair Kate Howie warned: 'We could find there is a surge in workload because large numbers of patients come in for a health check, when they are not really at risk.'
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