Half of people are missing out on NHS Health Check for over 40s

A report into the initial success of the NHS Health Check scheme has revealed that only around half as many people are getting the Health Check as was expected to be the case.
The NHS Health Check, which has been unofficially dubbed the health MOT, is a national scheme that is available for people aged between 40 and 74. The health check assesses your risk for five common chronic diseases: type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, kidney disease and dementia.
The NHS Health Check is being delivered by local authorities and has had a target to meet, after 9 months of the scheme running, of offering 15% of people aged between 40 and 74 the Health Check and 75% of those people accepting. If the target is met, this would mean that 11.25% of people within the target age group should have received the check.
A report by Diabetes UK, however, shows that the majority of local authorities are failing to meet the intended target and the result is that only 6.4% of eligible people have had the check.
The strongest performing local authority is Leicester which has offered the check to over 17,000 people, which is over 23% of its eligible population. The weakest performing local authority is Surrey which has offered the check to less than 1,000 people, that is only 0.3% of the eligible population receiving a check which could help turn people’s lives around.
Diabetes UK’s report also shows that a lot of people that are highlighted as being at high risk of type 2 diabetes are not being offered appropriate support to help them make lifestyle changes that could prevent or significantly delay the onset of type 2 diabetes.
Diabetes UK’s Chief Executive, Barbara Young, said: “The NHS Health Check is one of the best new health initiatives this country has seen in recent years and, if rolled out properly, it has the potential to prevent thousands of cases of Type 2 diabetes and identify many people with undiagnosed Type 2.”