The rationing of Health Checks is symptomatic of NHS short-termism

If the Government is serious about prevention, it should stop undermining existing functioning policies, such as the NHS Health Check, smoking cessation and basic general practice, argues editor Sofia Lind

Our latest major investigation – picked up in the national media last week – found vast numbers of local authorities are limiting the number of NHS Health Checks GP practices can deliver and be reimbursed for.

The programme aims to invite the whole eligible population every five years. But our FOI data showed many areas setting caps on the over-40s checks below the implied 20% per year, or introducing ceilings when budgets run out.

With the public health grant having fallen by around a fifth in real terms over the past decade, only a small minority of councils are now commissioning checks at the level needed to meet targets.

Although GPs’ views on the checks are mixed, a majority still find value. In our survey, 62% said they are useful. And GPs told us they remain one of the few reliable ways of reaching higher-risk patients who rarely present, particularly middle-aged men.

Also last week, the Government published its new national cancer plan. Although it reiterated welcome commitments on tobacco legislation and obesity, its headline GP mention focused on the use of AI to detect rare cancers, and health policy experts decried its wider lack of prevention efforts.

On smoking cessation, a report by the Company Chemists’ Association (CCA) last week revealed that fewer than half of local authorities are now commissioning a smoking cessation service from community pharmacy.

And on the note of obesity, as I’ve previously argued, the rollout of weight-loss drugs has left a lot wanting on behalf of GPs. Ultimately, a lot of the prevention agenda relies on the same infrastructure, and if public authority finances – along with general practice finances – are not restored, it’ll be more talk and no action.

Although health checks aren’t perfect, they are a decently-functioning, relatively low-cost, already existing feature of the prevention model. If the Government wants to save NHS money by preventing cardiovascular disease and cancer, it needs to stop starving these efforts of funding.

Sofia Lind is editor of Pulse. Find her at [email protected] or on LinkedIn 

You can hear more about our investigation into health checks on our most recent episode of Pulse in Focus: The podcast for GPs. Listen here.