Check-ups no substitute for national screening programme

A Ministry of Health (MoH) initiative to offer low-cost basic health checks through a local pharmacy chain has received a mixed response from the United Arab Emirate's physicians.

The campaign spearheads a year-long scheme between the MoH and BinSina Pharmacy, aimed at spreading awareness on preventive health measures.

For AED15, UAE residents can be screened for blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol and obesity in a procedure that reportedly should only take 15 minutes.

Dr Haifa Feres, technical assistant to the director of primary healthcare at the Ministry, warned the low-cost medicals are no substitute for implemening a national screening programme.

"It is good to do it for a short time for a campaign, but you should not use it for a long period of time on a large population," said Feres.

Residents participating in the test will do so voluntarily, and no formal follow-up programme has been announced. Feres suggested that, outside a primary care setting, there is a potential for at-risk individuals to fall through the net.

"Long term you have to have patients coming to clinics because there has to be a comprehensive screening programme," she said.

The arrangement also restricts the opportunities for collating data on the prevalence and trends of regional disease patterns, she added. "We have a problem with data here and there is not enough local research about certain disease."

But Dr Mathews A. Alappat, a specialist physician at Welcare Hospital, argued that the convenience and low-cost of the tests could be of benefit in attracting residents that currently struggle to access care.

"It might be very difficult for a patient to go and see a doctor and get a blood test," Alappat said. "If the patient sees a pharmacy down the road that is doing it for AED15 then they might get round to actually doing it."

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