Hard choices made in these tough times

Screening for common cancers and other threats to our health has a proven track record when it comes to saving lives. Tens of thousands of patients each year are spared a worse outcome thanks to conditions being picked up and treated at the earliest stage.

It is a system so effective, albeit by no means yet perfect, that one independent review concluded it should give us as a society “much to be proud of ”.

No wonder then that Catherine Calderwood and Nicola Sturgeon appeared quite so visibly pained yesterday to have to announce the programme’s temporary suspension.

The vast majority of those who will now have to wait a while longer to be checked would have been given the all-clear.

For some though, this delay in diagnosis could have very serious consequences indeed.

In setting out the hard facts behind the pause, the chief medical officer made a very coherent and convincing case.

NHS staff are desperately needed to fight the known threat of Covid-19 and being screened itself would put otherwise healthy people at risk of contracting the virus.

But her anguished acknowledgement of the potential consequences vividly underlined the unenviable and invidious daily choices facing those guiding us through this crisis.

“For some though, this delay in diagnosis could have very serious consequences indeed”