NHS cash crisis ‘must not delay bowel cancer screening’
 The case for a national bowel cancer screening programme is clear but is the government’s commitment to it waning? asks an article in the British Medical Journal. While NHS Scotland is introducing a screening programme in March 2007, with national rollout by 2011, there is little evidence that such activity will be seen across the UK.
In 2004, the government committed to providing £37.5 million over two years for a programme to begin in April 2006. This deadline cannot be met because it will take around six months to commission the screening centres, and no funding has yet been provided.
The NHS financial crisis is clearly the cause of the delay, but it is unclear if this is a temporary hiccough or a shelving of the programme, say authors.
The information is contained in Impending or pending? The national bowel cancer screening programme
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