Stago, a company supplying medical diagnostic products, invited me to visit them in Theale. Whilst there I met several of their staff and a representative of their trade association, the British In Vitro Diagnostics Association.
The Trade body stressed to me the importance of good diagnostics to early discovery of a medical problem. Early diagnosis can mean more effective treatment, and may mean cheaper and less invasive treatment as well. Health grounds and NHS cost efficiency grounds point to sensible use of diagnostics. They wish to improve the NHS procurement process. I stressed that changes to it are possible: they need to demonstrate improvement for patients and taxpayers and be fair to the various companies in the industry as a whole.
Stago is the UK subsidiary of a privately owned French company specialising in blood testing.