I went for a full body MOT and the results came as a shock
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- Neko Health charges £299 for a full-body scan screening for skin cancer, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and eye conditions, and currently has 100,000 people on its waiting list
- Annabel Mason-Thompson said Neko Health's AI scanner failed to flag any of her four cancerous lesions on her back; a concern was only raised when she pointed out a red mark during her post-scan consultation
- Mehvish, 33, was unexpectedly diagnosed with Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults (LADA) after her scan flagged elevated blood sugar, calling the early intervention "life-saving"
- Neko Health's own data shows 1.2% of 4,362 scans at its Stockholm headquarters last year uncovered life-threatening conditions such as melanoma and leukaemia, with a further 4% spotting conditions requiring further treatment
- NHS England warned the scans are driving "over-diagnosis, unnecessary investigations and avoidable anxiety," and RCGP president Prof Victoria Tzortziou Brown said GPs have seen no "convincing evidence" private broad screening improves outcomes
- The journalist's own scan flagged 3,311 skin markings — nearly four times the client average of 845 — with three moles sent for further dermatology review, though follow-up cleared them
Why it matters: The £299 preventative-scan market is scaling fast — 100,000 on Neko's waitlist alone — while the article documents both a missed-cancer case and a life-changing diabetes catch from the same technology. If even a fraction of paying clients are referred back into the NHS for follow-ups on clinically insignificant findings, it adds cost and anxiety to a public system the article shows is openly skeptical.
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