Gordon Brown will today pledge to make the renewal of the NHS his "biggest priority" as he unveils a major new national health screening programme.
Details: In his first keynote speech on the NHS since becoming prime minister, Brown will say the NHS needs to step up from universal provision to meeting the personal needs of individual patients.
"Among global healthcare systems, the NHS is uniquely well-placed to deliver a transformation in the relationship between patients and clinicians," he will say.
"It remains one of the most trusted organisations in British society, its doctors, nurses and staff recognised by everyone as a force for good in our country. This is why renewal of the NHS will be our highest priority."
In a bid to regain the initiative over the NHS, Brown plans to set up the first national screening programme of its kind in the world, to detect early signs of heart problems, strokes, diabetes and kidney disease and provide the sort of wellbeing tests generally available only to private patients.
Key diagnostic procedures such as blood tests, electro-cardiograms (ECGs) and ultrasounds will in the future be available in local GP surgeries to help cut waiting times.
Speaking on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme this morning, the prime minister said the screening programme would be first targeted to those most at risk of before "gradually" becoming available to all.
Asked when the new screening services for early detection would be available to everyone across the country, Brown said: "It depends how many people come forward."
He said: "We don't know how many people will want to take this up. Large numbers of people [who] are encouraged to take preventative vaccines sometimes do not do so. We have to have an advertising and education campaign."
Brown is seeking to regain the momentum on health after a bleak three months that has seen Labour hit by a series of crises, from the collapse of Northern Rock and the loss of millions of people's child benefit records, to the political donations scandal being investigated by the police.
In his speech, Brown is expected to announce that the health secretary, Alan Johnson, will set out plans to introduce NHS tests to identify vulnerability to a range of heart and circulation problems.
Vascular screening, to be introduced this year or early 2009, will include a series of blood, fat and sugar tests in GP surgeries, alongside questions on age, gender, postcode, family history, height and weight.
Those identified as being at risk will have access to treatment, advice and support to make necessary lifestyle changes to avoid ill-health.
And as many as 1,600 lives could be saved each year by offering men over 65 a simple ultrasound test for early abdominal aortic aneurysm - or "triple A", the weakening of the main artery from heart to abdomen, which kills more than 3,000 men annually.
Early detection of the potentially fatal condition will allow preventative surgery for patients at risk.
Brown will also announce further moves to meet the government's target of a maximum 18-week waiting time from diagnosis to treatment.
"We will extend the availability of diagnostic procedures in the GP surgery - making blood tests, ECGs and, in some cases, ultrasounds available and on offer not only when you are acutely unwell or if you can pay, but when you want and need them, where you need them, at the local surgery," he will say.
Brown told the BBC's Andrew Marr show yesterday that the government was also forging ahead with measures to blitz MRSA levels by screening all NHS patients for MRSA and Clostridium dificile when they enter hospital, due to be announced later this week.
