Screening is a public health service in which the health service invites members of a defined population, who have no symptoms or other reason to believe they are unwell to come forward and be tested for the presence of a disease.
Screening populations for disease is fundamentally, philosophically and functionally different from detecting disease in a patient and has important ethical differences from everyday clinical practice.
Screening can:
- save lives;
- reduce the risk of developing a disease;
- reduce the risk of complications;
- enable more effective and timely treatment; and
- improve quality of life.
There are several screening programmes on offer in Gibraltar, depending on age and health requirements, please see the links below for further information on screening.
