Screening

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Screening is a process of identifying apparently healthy people who may be at increased risk of a disease or condition. Screening tests are not compulsory but are offered to help people make informed choices about their health. Screening can find serious conditions early, before any symptoms appear.

There are six national population screening programmes in Scotland:

• AAA Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) screening: looks for aneurysms which are, bulges in blood vessels. Treating an AAA early greatly reduces the chance of it causing serious problems. In Scotland, all men and people who were assigned male at birth (AMAB) are invited to attend AAA screening when they turn 65.
  
• Bowel screening: Bowel cancer is the third most common cancer in Scotland. Around 4,000 people in Scotland get bowel cancer every year. People are invited to complete the bowel screening test if they are 50 to 74 years old, are living in Scotland and haven’t been screened in the last 2 years. If they’re 75 or over, they’ll no longer be invited to take a bowel screening test. However if they choose to, they can still take a bowel screening test every 2 years.
  
• Breast screening: In Scotland, breast screening is routinely offered to those who are female, are between 50 and 70 years old and have not had breast screening in the last 3 years. Breast screening is also offered to non-binary people who were assigned female at birth (AFAB), and haven’t had breast removal surgery, trans women who are taking hormones and trans men who haven’t had breast removal surgery.
  
• Cervical screening: Cervical screening is offered to women and anyone with a cervix who lives in Scotland and is aged between 25 and 64. Some people who have changes that need to be monitored will be offered screening until they’re 70. These changes will have been detected at a previous screening appointment.
  
• Diabetic Eye screening: In Scotland, diabetic eye screening is offered to people aged 12 and over with type 1 or type 2 diabetes.
  
• Pregnancy and Newborn: All expectant parents are offered screening during pregnancy, and all new parents will be offered screening for their child after birth

NHS Western Isles is accountable for providing screening to their own population. As a small NHS board some screening programmes are delivered in collaboration with bigger NHS boards. NHS Highland provides the call and recall service for AAA and breast screening. NHS Highland breast screening Centre provides the screening service for NHS Western Isles. NHS Tayside provides the call and recall service for bowel screening.

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