By Public Health England
This review argues that checking 40-74-year-olds’ blood pressure, cholesterol, weight and lifestyle could identify problems earlier and prevent 650 deaths, 1,600 heart attacks and 4,000 cases of diabetes a year. Before local authorities took over responsibility for commissioning health checks in April, there was considerable variation in how widely they were offered. PHE, which leads the NHS Health Check programme, has now launched a ten-point plan to help councils roll them out to 20 per cent of their eligible local population a year –15 million people by 2018/19.