“Two-thirds of diagnoses would be given to healthy people”

This Scottish report “Adding Life to Years” is now rather old. It once asked about ageism:

This week the UK National Screening Committee has expressed significant concerns about screening tests for cognition:

In NHS Scotland if you are 65 and over and need to be in hospital, you will be “screened” for “cognitive impairment”. All NHS Boards in Scotland are being measured, in terms of “compliance” for such “screening”.

Without consent, and the explanation of what these simple and “brief” “screening tools” can and cannot determine, and further explanation of the potential consequences, I would argue that NHS Scotland is taking an experimental leap, where any reasonable effort to give informed consent has been marginalised.

I have huge trouble with the prevailing idea that “identification” is somehow completely distinct from “screening”. The World Health Organisation covered this matter very clearly a few years after I was born. That work, in my view, is just as relevant today.

The Scottish Government has recently issued this reassurance:

The Mental Welfare Commission has confirmed that they support the approach of both the Scottish Government and Healthcare Improvement Scotland.