NHS Health Check

The NHS Health Check programme has been developed to prevent heart disease, diabetes, stroke and kidney disease. If you're aged 40-74 years and haven't already been diagnosed with one of these conditions, you'll be invited once every five years to have a health check to assess your risk of developing one of these diseases.

You'll be given advice to help reduce or manage your risk of disease. The checks include height and weight measurement, body mass index (BMI), smoking status, alcohol screening, physical activity levels, family history of heart disease, blood pressure measurement, cholesterol measurement and a diabetes test as appropriate. In Shropshire you'll be invited to have a health check by your GP.

We all know that we shouldn't be overweight, shouldn't smoke, should do more exercise, should drink less - but what the health check offers you is a chance, once every five years, to have a personal assessment of how your lifestyle choices are impacting your health, particularly your cardiovascular health.

More information can be found on the NHS Health Check website. For all other enquiries or additional information relating to the NHS Health Check programme please email nhshealthcheck@shropshire.gov.uk or call 0345 678 9028.

Are you a practitioner currently delivering NHS health checks? If so, take a look at our professional resources.