Screening in Scotland.
A survey of screening in Scottish Health Boards suggests that, with the exceptions of screening in the antenatal period, for some conditions in the neonatal period and for the two national programmes for breast and cervix in adult women, practice is by no means uniform across all Boards and there is a lack of systematic evaluation. Four suggestions are made to improve equity, quality and relevance of screening: (i) national guidelines should be formulated to promote the implementation of the same core screening activities in all Boards; (ii) audit and quality control programmes should be universal and systematically applied; (iii) the demarcations of professional and managerial responsibilities and lines of accountability should be clarified; (iv) any proposed new screening programmes should be assessed in the light of the World Health Organisation principles before their introduction.