Thousands miss out on NHS health checks

Figures reveal huge disparities in access to the checks for conditions including diabetes, heart disease and kidney problems which are scheduled to be offered to 1.5m people aged 40 to 74 in the region in a rolling five-year programme.

Only 150,000 people across Yorkshire were offered the checks in 2011-12, half the number due to be targeted, with none receiving invitations in the East Riding or Sheffield compared to 27,000 in the Wakefield district.

Overall nearly 88,000 tests were carried out, but take-up rates varied considerably from more than 90 per cent in Rotherham to fewer than 10 per cent in Bradford where only 190 were performed.

Latest figures show numbers of checks in the six months to September were again significantly below target despite evidence that large numbers of people are being referred for further tests including 4,000 in North Yorkshire who were last year diagnosed within months of the checks with kidney disease, diabetes or high blood pressure.

In Sheffield, the checks only began last summer, while in the East Riding only one in four GPs are taking part in the initiative.

Now there are concerns about the future of the programme as responsibilities for its implementation are handed to local councils under NHS reforms.

Leeds family doctor Richard Vautrey, deputy chairman of the British Medical Association’s GP committee, said provision was “patchy” due to the piecemeal introduction of the checks. There were also doubts about whether the venture was useful and cost-effective in identifying problems.

He said: “It’s difficult at the moment with so much change in the health service to know whether local authorities have got the people in place to take on the commissioning of these services and others and that is causing practices concern.”

Jules Payne, chief executive of the cholesterol charity HEART UK, argued the programme was key in picking up health problems early. But she said delivering on a target of offering tests to one in five people was “pie in the sky” in some parts. Handing responsibility for the initiative to local councils was an opportunity to deliver checks innovatively and target hard-to-reach patients but it was clear there were uncertainties over the new arrangements.

“I am very concerned that the number of people who should be reached, won’t be reached,” she said.

NHS officials in the East Riding said family doctors had been asked to express an interest in providing the checks which were launched in the summer. But a spokesman said: “There was limited GP uptake which may have been due to uncertainty over how the NHS Health Check programme is to be provided in the future.”

It was understood the programme would be formally re-procured by council chiefs in the area by next autumn.

In Hull, officials said the service is being relaunched following a fall in numbers of checks since April. GPs were being offered incentives to perform them.

NHS managers in Sheffield said almost all GPs in the city were now able to offer the checks. “The local service commenced over the summer and so some surgeries have this fully up and running whilst others are presently in the process of setting up their service,” a spokesman added.

A NHS spokesman in Bradford and Airedale said the programme had initially targeted those most at risk but was inviting significantly more people for checks.

The Department of Health said every area was expected to offer NHS Health Checks to those eligible.