Doctors call for end to misleading advertising about private screening

Private companies that market health screening tests to the general public need to be better regulated to prevent people being exploited and the NHS being burdened with patients having unnecessary tests and procedures, the BMA and the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges have said.

A letter sent to England’s health secretary, Andrew Lansley, by Hamish Meldrum, the BMA’s chairman, and Neil Douglas, chairman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, says that safeguards do exist to ensure that …