Cornwall To Litigation At-Home Health Checkups

The Online Questionnaires 

Patients will fill out online questionnaires, take blood samples at their place, and do blood pressure reading at a pharmacy or GP surgery.

The trial is the primary of its kind and is part of the government's goal to digitalize the NHS Health Check.

Public health minister Neil O'Brien said the checkups would "decrease pressure" on services.

The NHS Health Check 

The NHS Health Check is a health checkup for seniors in England aged 40 to 74 designed to stop stroke, kidney disease, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and various types of dementia.

A total of 15 million public are allowed free-of-cost NHS Health Checks in England, per the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).

GPs deliver the checks face-to-face, but many parts can be done without a GP.

The latest trial aims to free up time for more acute GP visits, the DHSC said.

More than 2,000 people from 3 GP operations across Cornwall are invited to participate in the checkups. Only those whose results said underlying health issues would be followed-up by their GP.

The trial results will help the design and development of the latest legal NHS Digital Health Check.

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'Reducing pressure'

Minister for public health Neil O'Brien said: "Creation is key to a modern, forward-looking National Health Service, and this new thing will assist them to know what the latest digital NHS Health Check could look like.

"During the COVID 19 the public got used to doing checkups at their place and getting their results online, so this innovation is an opportunity for us to apply some of the assignments they learned during the pandemic time and improve the way we deliver healthcare."

First opportunity To Digital Health Checks 

Dr. Andy Sant, assistant director of NHS Cornwall's north and east areas integrated care parts, said he was "satisfied" patients in Cornwall were given the foremost opportunity to use the digital health checks.

As per the DHSC, the provided NHS Health Checks have been actually lower in Cornwall than in most local authorities in England.

During 2019-20, over 13,400 visitors were offered, and over 6,900 were concluded, but in 2021-22 4,300 were proffered, and just over 1,900 were concluded.

Cornwall councilor Dr. Andy Virr, the portfolio holder for seniors and public health, said it was "amazing news" the trial was being carried out in the area.

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