04 April 2008
Everyone between the ages of 40 and 74 will be given a five-yearly vascular health check through a programme beginning next year, the government has promised.
Health Secretary Alan Johnson said that the checks to assess vulnerability to vascular illness – heart disease, stroke, diabetes and kidney disease – would prevent up to 9,500 heart attacks and strokes every year and save 2,000 lives.
But the announcement on April 1, which did not detail how the programme would be implemented, drew criticism from the Conservative Party, which accused the government of announcing the same policy over and over again.
Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said the government had first promised a 'Life Check' in July 2006. 'But, in the past two years, all they've done is re-announce the policy without actually doing anything about it.
'Gordon Brown's re-announcement of health checks in January was more spin than substance. He didn't tell us when or how health checks would be introduced, nor how much they would cost,' he said. Johnson 'still hasn't answered these questions'.
The health secretary said modelling had shown expected costs of £250m a year once the scheme was 'fully operational'. He promised that the funding would be 'in addition' to primary care trusts' existing allocations.
The health checks, which will use standard questionnaires, height and weight measurements and blood pressure tests, had received support from the Royal College of GPs and health care charities. 'We're confident this approach will have the potential to save thousands of lives each year,' Johnson said.
But the announcement also received short shrift from the British Medical Association.
'We had a stakeholder meeting yesterday – the BMA didn't turn up,' Johnson said.
Dr Laurence Buckman, chair of the BMA's GP committee, said: 'While we would like to welcome this, as prevention is undoubtedly better than cure, we have serious concerns about the pressure this will put on an already overstretched general practice.'
Buckman suggested the scheme 'could work out at 40 extra appointments a week', reducing doctors' time for treating sick patients, while Johnson put the figure at seven appointments per practice each week.
The health secretary said: 'I think once we start discussing this with the BMA, they will see this can be done by practice nurses, practice staff and a whole range of people.'
PFapr2008
