Over 40s to have health checks on NHS
pharmafile | April 1, 2009 | News story | |Â Â NHSÂ
Everyone in England aged 40-74 is to get a health check on the NHS in an attempt to identify major conditions such as coronary heart disease and diabetes earlier.
The health checks will include questions to patients about their health, diet, exercise habits and family medical history, and measurements of height and weight.
All will be given a blood test for cholesterol, with some selected for blood sugar testing for diabetes.
Based on the initial assessment, a follow up consultation will then set out the individual's level of risk and what they can do to reduce it, with weight loss, exercise and stopping smoking among the most likely recommendations.
The NHS Health Checks are to be introduced from 1 April, and is a significant move for the service away from responding to sickness and towards more preventative medicine.
The checks will be rolled out across England from April and will be fully implemented by 2012/13. They are likely to be available at GP surgeries, health centres, walk in centres and pharmacies to maximise the number of people who take up the offer.
The government says the initiative could prevent 1600 heart attacks and strokes each year and help save 650 lives annually.
The NHS is becoming more personal and responsive to individual needs; becoming as good at prevention and keeping people healthy as it is at providing care and cures; and able to offer the information and support people need to make healthy choices.
Primary Care Trusts across England are now putting together their own local implementation plans to make sure they can deliver the checks and follow up services that will best suit the needs of the local population.
The reforms have been welcomed by a number of health charities, but have been roundly attacked by the BMA.
Dr Laurence Buckman, chairman of the BMA's general practice committee, said the new checks would be an unnecessary burden on GPs, and make them spend time with the healthy at the expense of treating the sick.
He called the new initiative "unpiloted, uncosted, theoretical nonsense."
The Conservative's shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said the checks had been promised by the government since 2006, and said that only a tiny proportion of high street pharmacies had so far been signed up to provide the service.
The Lib Dem's Norman Lamb indicated indirectly his agreement with the scheme, but pointed out the government's repeated cuts in public health programmes in recent years.
Professor Peter Weissberg, medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said: "These risk assessments could really help tackle vascular conditions, but will only work if it is backed up by real investment. The big focus must be on reaching those at highest risk, who are often in our most deprived and hard to reach communities."
The government says it estimates the checks will cost £250m a year and says funds have been set aside specifically for its implementation.
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