NHS Health check AIBU to not bother?

[Covgal83]

I am mid/late 40s. Good BMI. Walk well over 10,000 steps a day and do weights and regularly, comfortably run over 10km (do a couple of half marathons etc). Work and rarely have a day off. Don’t smoke. Drink slightly more than 14units/week. Have a reasonable diet. Stressful job but, generally, manage it well and am happy. Two kids. No signs of PM really.

I have been booked in for an NHS health check six times by my GP. It’s been cancelled every time. They want me to rebook.

Is it going to tell me anything I don’t know? Feels a bit of a farce and - as per first paragraph - I feel like I’m not in bad health. Are any of the tests going to reveal anything I don’t already know?

As someone who is overweight myself (though I’m trying to lose some) I’m hardly prejudice against fatties as you call them. I’d say your use of the term fatties is more disrespectful than me not taking a lecture from someone who on the face of it doesn’t practice what they preach!

Mine was a bit pointless. Got a full bill of health, a week later was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer 🤷‍♀️

The blood checks include cholesterol and blood sugar and blood pressure is also checked I think they are helpful for that alone. It's surprising how many people are walking around with high blood pressure and cholesterol and have no idea

Are you a GP, @Sidge? Your derogatory language to describe overweight patients is disgraceful, if so. I'm overweight - 14st - but have been as low as 6st 5lb and as high as 19st. I have lived with EDs since I was 13, so nearly four decades.

GPs always, without fail, tell me I need to lose weight. I've been stable at this weight for about five years and while I know I'm overweight, I would honestly rather be like this than where I was previously. My recovery is very precarious and attitudes like yours make it more so - knowing HCPs are judging me as soon as they see me without even bothering to read my notes.

I've been put off going to the GP previously because I'm so worried about being judged/dismissed/triggered. You've just confirmed that this is the case.

Not self defeating at all. You don’t know my personal circumstances. As it happens I was working at the time and my employer regularly held well person events that checked BP, weight etc. As I said I went along out of curiosity to see if results correlated with ones done at work. I am addressing my weight issue. My body fat ratio regularly gets checked by my PT as does my BP.

I did all that you did and had high cholesterol.
Just book it!

Book it

I didn’t know I had high blood pressure, picked up on a random GP visit.That was a surprise.

And then the lovely HCP at my surgery double checked my pulse and said it seemed uneven. Sent for holter tests, cardiac scans , then had a small device called an implanted loop recorder ,ILR , fitted as the holter turned out to be not picking stuff up. Turned out I have a very irregular heartbeat , my heart was sometimes stopping for up to 8 seconds at a time( though obviously starting up again! ) . I now have a pacemaker.

I was not aware of either condition, no symptoms, and like you OP I thought I was fit and healthy.

I'm nearly 50 and I have never been offered any health checks at all only cervical smears !! Id deffo go for one u can be fit and healthy and have silent illness like high cholesterol ect ect

That is absolutely not true. It’s irresponsible and neglectful to be so blasé, and it wastes nhs and taxpayer resources to not pick up something sooner which costs less to treat than if it was picked up later. Other European countries have a much better attitude to this than we tend to in the U.K.

It's helpful but whether it's six cancellations and being messed about helpful is another question.

@sidge if practices don't respect the time of patients, would you mind awfully explaining why the patients should respect the time of clinicians?

Beyond what you have already listed, they will check your cholesterol and blood pressure and calculate your QRIsk score which brings together up to 22 risk parameters to see if you are risk of a CV event. Lifestyle is important to keep you healthy for as long as possible, but you can't know your QRisk score is without a full review and blood tests. NHS Health checks also check for diabetes and chronic kidney disease which can develop over time regardless of how health your lifestyle is. Early intervention can save lives!

www.nhs.uk/tests-and-treatments/nhs-health-check/#:~:text=If%20you're%20aged%2040,GP%20to%20arrange%20an%20appointment.

No not a GP. And I wasn't meaning to be derogatory, more ironic - but maybe I should have put "fatties" in inverted commas. I was using the tone set by the poster who described the HCP as 'waddling' which I found unpleasant.

I see the struggles of obese people day in day out and am nothing but professional and empathetic and supportive. I would never use the word "fatties" about my patients, nor describe anyone as waddling. Unlike that poster.

It does blood tests for cholesterol and, where appropriate diabetes and chronic kidney disease. As a woman you are twice as likely to die from a cardiovascular event (heart attack, stroke) than you are from breast cancer.

Not quite sure why you're dragging me into this. I am not a spokesperson for all practices, and have nothing to do with the OPs situation.

I agree six cancellations is excessive and annoying. I can only guess they were struggling with sickness or were very short staffed.

None of this is offered on the nhs health check. It’s simply to catch possible patient who may need lifestyle advice to reduce their risk of CVD. It’s just BP, weight, some lifestyle questionnaires, cholesterol and blood sugars so they can calculate your Qrisk, your risk of developing cardiovascular disease in the next 10 years, and offer any lifestyle advice (if needed) to keep your risk score low.

They are only for patients age 40-74 without certain pre existing conditions, they are only every 5 years and not available in every area. It depends on local funding.

And feed you into treatment pathways if you have high blood pressure, diabetes or pre-diabetes, high cholesterol.or chronic kidney disease. NHS heath checks is a national programme in England and it is a statutory requirement for all local authorities to commission them - not necessarily from GPs.

evidence.nihr.ac.uk/alert/is-the-nhs-health-check-improving-our-populations-health/

I had no pre- existing medical conditions when I was offered one when I turned 50 hence why I think it was a money making thing.

Absolute claptrap.

I felt fine and I've never been a worrier.

As I said upthread, it threw up a very underactive thyroid.

As a result of that, I also had high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Yet I didn't have one single symptom 🤷‍♂️

I have worked as a HCA and done more of these checks than I care to remember. When they were very first put in place they were called a cardiovascular risk assessment which then changed a few years later to the NHS health check. I always had a GP to call on if anything was amiss and I have picked up a number of abnormal heart rhythms when doing the BP check and pulse which the GP then ordered more tests and referrals for. These patients were unaware of any problems. We picked up many cases of diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol which the patients didn't know they had.

Yes the surgery does get paid for these but this gives funding to employ the staff to do these checks. I would go - it's one appointment every 5 years if all is well and could pick up something you are unaware of.

They pick up health issues that you may have even if you feel really well, such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol which can greatly increase people's risk of heart attacks and strokes.

I don't know why people wouldn't go. It's not like the USA where people have to pay .

Why on earth would you walk about of an appointment because your HCA was more overweight than you? She is still qualified to take a blood sample and your weight probably has an adverse effect on your health and she needs to tell you this. You aren't protected from the health conditions caused by poor diet and excess weight just because other people, including your HCA, are fatter than you.

It’s worth it for the bloods if nothing else. Not everything is symptomatic. DH was mega fit and had raised BP and cholesterol.
More accurate to check your own BP at home.
Practice nurse.

The lady doing mine asked if I'd been in the forces after I told her what my exercise regime was 😁. (Office admin, not defending the nation).