To think the NHS Health Check (for over 40s) can be done at home?

[Usedphone]

I just had that health check done and it was a total waste of time!

The nurse told me that my BMI would skew everything (and that it was due to my muscle mass), she just ticked some boxes, added some data, took my blood pressure and then told me I was low risk and that I should ignore the other advice.

She was also surprised when I told her I was not white! (Which I'm.not but I know I can be white passing).

It would have been quicker to just go in, take my booo pressure and do the rest from my phone. Would have had exactly the same result, and no waste of resources!

But they do a finger prick to check blood glucose and cholesterol too don't they? They did in mine, although they rushed it so much I felt like they were just trying to get it done and me out the door.

No they didn't do either! They've tested my cholesterol in the summer and maybe my glucose (that I'm not sure) the nurse just used those values!

I had a finger prick test too.

Are you meant to get invited to one? I'm nearly 41 and never had any check

There is going to be a limited trial (only a few areas) of health checks at home for people with blood pressure monitors or who can get to a pharmacy. A finger prick test will be sent.

the checks are really important. Lots of people don’t realize that they have high blood pressure. Please take it up if offered by your GP

I’m 60 and yet to be invited for one…

Yes, I got a text from my surgery

Is this UK wide or just NHS England?

I was never invited but I knew about it so asked for one.

It is literally just a box ticking exercise to meet a target, and they can also use it to encourage you to lose weight (box ticked) stop smoking (box ticked) and get a smear test (box ticked). Our 40+ test doesn't include a cholesterol check, and any woman on birth control has to get her BP checked (probably at the pharmacy) anyway.

In fairness research shows that having a doctor tell you to stop smoking results in a better quit rate than nothing. I'm just not sure a bored nurse with a checklist of extremely basic questions will have the same effect, and it continues to bug me that surgeries have endless resources for all the stuff we are not asking for, but no GP appointments ever.

You should definitely get contacted and encouraged to attend.

To be fair I've had my BP done, I have full bloods every 12 weeks etc so I'm not too high up the priority list given im at the doctors almost monthly anyway!

Yes, that's what it felt like to me. I thought they would mention the perimenopause or something but nothing.

When they arranged mine, I had a blood test and I discovered I have hypothyroidism an underactive thyroid.

Well worth going to check and certainly not a box ticking exercise.

i keep getting texts from my surgery but i'm not interested. i cant get an appointment for what i actually want so i'm not taking time off work for a basic health check

OP you are very lucky to have a decent GP surgery with appointments like that. We have the farce of phone appointments for asthma check ups. When my elderly parents needed a home visit they sent the jet team not a GP. Hopeless

My DH has phone asthma check-ups. From what I could gather this a joint Council/Trust thing.

I bet they asked you what birth control you use, and whether you want a Mirena coil though, because there is a box for that .

Nope, they didn't!! I have no BC as my DH had the snip

Didn’t you get a blood test? I had one and tbh is the only reason I went and as you point out the rest can be done at home. I was also called to come in for the results, which was a bit alarming, only to get there and be told everything was good. Bizarre waste of time….

Me too 🤷🏻‍♀️

I was 60 when I was asked for my first check, and it was pointless. When the question "Do you drink?" was asked, I replied "funnily enough I had a sherry the other night" - She fell on that like a starving dog on a bone "aha! so you do drink!" - she was obsessed with a glass of sherry for the first time in years, at a wedding, and I couldn't get it through to her. That was all it was! So, a waste of time

These things are for the "worried well", IMO. Easier just to opt out completely.

Also I wasn’t invited. My DH was, so that’s how I knew about it. I had to contact them to arrange and wouldn’t have known if not for Dh being invited (same surgery). Maybe they prioritise men? Plus I think it’s every five years after 40 I think.

No, not recently anyway. I had some done in the summer.