Delivering NHS health checks to all

Abstract

The NHS Health Check programme (formerly known as vascular checks) is an ambitious initiative that will offer preventative checks to men and women aged 40–74 years to assess their risk of vascular disease (heart disease, stroke, diabetes and kidney disease). The Department of Health public health White Paper, Healthy Lives, Healthy People, published on 30 November 2010, confirmed that NHS health checks are here to stay. For primary care trusts, NHS health checks are already a reality. Work began in April 2009, with all primary care trusts expected to offer some checks in 2009/10 and full implementation required by 2012/13. By this time, 20% of eligible people should be invited for an NHS health check once a year, i.e. the whole population will be reviewed over 5 years. However, primary care trusts have a real challenge ahead to successfully implement the programme by 2012. Such challenges include: finding funding; deciding who will be responsible for commissioning the service; finding capacity for this service (and its required follow-up) and reaching certain populations. This article offers a novel model to address these changes.