A new digital version of the NHS Health Check will be piloted in selected areas early next year, the Government has announced.
The Department of Health and Social Care has revealed that a digital health check will be ‘ready for testing’ in early 2025, and will be available via the NHS App for patients to do ‘at home’.
It will be piloted in Norfolk, Medway and Lambeth, but ‘plans are being put in place’ for a national rollout, which will run alongside the existing face-to-face programme delivered from GP practices, in order to ‘give patients more choice’.
Currently, the face-to-face checks – predominantly delivered by GP practices – are aimed at adults in England aged 40 to 74.
‘The service will be available through the NHS App, meaning users can undertake their health check at home and have the results automatically written back into their GP electronic health record, within a few clicks,’ the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said.
The Government also announced that over 130,000 people will be able to access the ‘life-saving’ health check in their workplace ‘for the first time’.
According to DHSC, employers from ‘a range of professions’ will take part in the programme which began its rollout on Friday (30 August).
Andrew Gwynne, minister for public health and prevention, said: ‘We know so many deadly diseases can be avoided if we seek help in enough time. That’s why we’re working to improve access to treatment while also taking steps to address the preventable causes of cardiovascular disease.
‘This innovative new programme is an important step towards community-focused healthcare and supporting economic and productivity through improving health, shifting the focus from treatment to prevention, easing the strain on the NHS and helping people to live well for longer.’
Plans for a digital health check were first announced at the Spring Budget in 2023, following a pilot in Cornwall which aimed to take pressure off GP services.
The previous Government had committed to launching the digital check in spring 2024.
The health check can help to spot the early signs of stroke, kidney disease, heart disease, type 2 diabetes and dementia, and the new Labour Government said it plans to deliver one million digital NHS Health Checks in the first four years of the rollout.
Recent analysis of NHS data revealed that three in five people invited for the check in the past year did not take up the offer.
Last week, it was announced that libraries would be partnering with the NHS to help people access health services via the NHS App.
A version of this story was first published on our sister title Pulse.
