National Health Stories

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Factual: Health & Wellbeing

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Sally Sheard on the characters, innovations and heroic standoffs that have shaped the NHS.

On 5 July 1948, healthcare in Britain became free for all. Sally Sheard reveals the characters, innovations and heroic standoffs that have shaped the NHS.

On 5 July 1948, for the first time anywhere in the world, healthcare in Britain became free for all. Sally Sheard reveals the characters, innovations and heroic standoffs that have shaped the NHS.

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National Health Stories: Too Much Medicine

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Remedies of War

Too Much Medicine

BBC Radio 4 - National Health Stories, Too Much Medicine

Breast screening highlighted the issue of over-diagnosis and over-treatment in the NHS.

The breast screening programme forced the NHS to weigh up if the lives saved, by early detection, justified the risk that some women would undergo treatment they did not need.

Screening the British public for the presence of disease, took the health service in a radically new direction. 

It was no longer just about symptoms. Certain diseases could be detected before a person even knew anything was wrong. 

Screening, however, has been fraught with controversy and, over the past three decades, breast cancer has often made the headlines.

The arrival of Britain's breast screening programme with mammography, in 1988, was welcomed. As it became established, however, some experts highlighted problems with the programme and began to question its value. 

Fewer women were being saved than first predicted, they claimed, and some women were being unnecessarily diagnosed and treated for cancers, detected through screening, that were not life threatening - what's called over-diagnosis and over-treatment. 

Today, over-diagnosis & over-treatment is generally accepted and information on over-treatment is available so that women can make an informed choice.

Producer: Beth Eastwood.

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