NHS Health Check: Priorities for research

Consultation response form

All views and comments on this publication are welcomed. We are particularly interested to hear your views on the questions outlined below. Please return your comments to by the 19 December 2014.

  1. Do you think that the document identifies the major research priorities for the programme?
Are there any additional research or evaluation questions which you have identified which you consider to be of particular importance for the programme?
Yes, the document identified the major research priorities for the programme. Areas of particular importance include the following questions:
“Are the NHS Health Checks reaching those at greatest risk?”
“Can we learn from (and replicate) success of those areas delivering high volumes of
invitations and uptake of NHS Health Check?”
“Evaluation of existing and new methods of communicating risk. How does this affect
patient activation?”
“Would performance monitoring improve effectiveness of programme?”
  1. Are there particular questions outlined in the document which you consider to be of greatest priority?
HEART UK’s vision is to prevent premature deaths caused by high cholesterol and cardiovascular disease, therefore we feel the question “does the NHS Health Check programme lead to a reduction in CVD and noncommunicablediseases?” to be of greatest priority.
We also feel the question “Has NHS Health Check reduced morbidity and mortality?” to be a critical question, along with “Is primary care providing support to those sign-posted from an NHS Health Check?” We feel primary and secondary care should be working in far greater alignment to tackle lipid disorders and related CVD.
  1. Are there any other considerations or opportunities for development of data infrastructure that should be considered?
More focus needs to be paid to measuring outcomes, including the recording of data and the tracking of patients who are referred onto other services for treatment, to ensure they are not given a diagnosis and then not followed up.
Risk registers could be developed to track patients at high risk following their health check.
General comments:
Familial hypercholesterolaemia should be tested for as standard within the health checks.
Better training for staff delivering the health checks is crucial, including around key areas such as measuring cholesterol levels and staff understanding what these results mean before communicating them to patients. Trained nurses should be made available for patients with queries following the tests.
We are concerned that referral systems are not standard and provisions may vary across the country. A system for ensuring all patients are called back for review in a timely fashion should also be introduced.
We have heard that not all conditions are tested for during the health check as different amounts of time are devoted to the check. This is disconcerting and all tests should be carried out so patients can be given a full picture of their health.
It would be useful to know how the 20% of the population targeted for health checks was chosen by each local authority, and how others will be chosen to be targeted in future.

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