Daniel D’cruz is the Service Manager for Reed Wellbeing’s NHS Health Check Service in Norfolk. Here, he explains why he and the team are on a mission to carry out 36,000 health checks of 40 to 74-year-olds by April of next year
What does your role involve?
My role is to make sure we that every 40 to 74-year-old in Norfolk entitled to an NHS Health Check can get one with us. This involves:
- Liaising with venues across the county to make sure that we have clinics available at convenient locations;
- Advertising the service to encourage the public to come forward for their health check;
- Working with Primary Care, community organisations and workplaces to get people referred in;
- Training and supporting my team to make sure we deliver an excellent service for our participants.
Who are the Norfolk Health Checks aimed at?
The NHS Health Check is a free check-up of overall health for people aged 40-74 and takes 20-30 minutes to complete. Our Health Check Practitioners will do some basic tests and complete a questionnaire with participants, before giving tailored advice and signposting to help them reduce their risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke and kidney disease.
Our service is open to anybody in Norfolk that meets the eligibility criteria – 80% of premature cardiovascular disease is preventable so it’s much better to see us and find out how to lower your risks on your own terms through lifestyle changes rather than need treatment later on. If we do pick up any concerns, we will also refer participants back to their GP for further investigation.
When did it launch, and what’s the take up been so far?
We have carried out over 8000 health checks since we launched in April last year, with over 85% of participants stating that they would recommend or strongly recommend our service to others.
What’s the target – and by when?
Our target is to complete 36,000 health checks by April 2024. This is approximately the same number of people that missed out on their health checks during the pandemic.
What sort of good news stories have come out of the health checks so far?
We have lots! So many of our participants have left glowing feedback telling us about the changes they’ve made due to their health checks. We’ve also identified severe hypertension (high blood pressure) in dozens of cases which have led to participants being put onto potentially lifesaving medication.
Our workplace scheme – where we provide checks to eligible participants at their place of work – is proving to be a big success. Many of the people we’ve seen have been too busy to attend appointments at their GP, so getting their check completed at work has meant that we’ve been able to help a lot of people that might have missed out.
‘Over recent weeks we have been delighted to be to offer our staff, over 40, health checks. The take up from staff has been incredible with Kirsty from Reed Wellbeing being fully booked at each visit. This has been a great opportunity for us to support staff members with their health and wellbeing. We are looking forward to working with Kirsty and Reed again next year.’
Lynsey Wright, Development and Wellbeing Lead at East Coast College
What would your message be to anyone who is deliberating whether to go and get checked?
Please do get yourself booked in! 80% of premature cardiovascular disease is preventable so it’s much better to spend 30 minutes with us to find out how to lower your risks on your own terms through lifestyle changes rather than need treatment further down the line. Our checks are non-intrusive, and our highly trained team are creative, compassionate and non-judgemental.
You can find out a bit more about how we deliver our Health Checks and hear from participants in this short video:
If you are 40-74 please visit norfolkhealthchecks.reedwellbeing.com or call 08081750413 to check your eligibility and book an appointment. There is also a dedicated page for employers to sign up to the workplace health checks offer: norfolkhealthchecks.reedwellbeing.com/employers/. The NHS Health Check Norfolk Service is in partnership with Reed Wellbeing and Norfolk County Council.
Featured images supplied by Daniel D’cruz
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