NHS Health Checks

NHS Health Checks are a key national prevention programme, intended to identify and manage cardiovascular risk among eligible adults. However, delivery and uptake in Lancashire remains inconsistent, with significant variation between practices, including conversion from invitations to completed checks and changing administrative workloads. Many practices report low response rates to invitations due to lack of awareness of the NHS Health Check programme, high levels of non attendance, and substantial resource required to manage recall, booking and follow up. These challenges are further compounded by wider health inequalities, with some population groups less likely to engage or attend without additional support. Locally, NHS Health Checks are delivered exclusively through general practices, using established GP clinical systems such as EMIS, but with variation in booking routes, invitation methods and levels of digital capability. Across the end to end pathway there are known pressure points, including limited public understanding of NHS Health Checks, drop off between invitation and attendance, fragmented booking and engagement processes, and a corresponding operational and administrative burden on practice teams. This early market engagement seeks to explore how these system level challenges might be addressed through more joined up, user centred and digitally enabled approaches that support both residents and practices.