Set to be rolled out next spring, 15 million adults between the ages of 40 to 75 will be invited to complete an online health assessment.
Patients across England will be asked to provide details on their weight, height, diet, alcohol intake and exercise regime.
A blood test to check for cholesterol will also be sent out in the post, but patients will need to see a pharmacist to find out their blood pressure readings.
After the DIY MOT kit is completed, anybody showing early signs of illness, such as heart disease, will be offered medical assistance.
I’m already aware of my blood pressure and cholesterol levels. The former is slowly starting to come under control. The latter was never out of control. As for my height and weight, I know what they are and I don’t have any great problems. Besides which, this is the job of the GP surgery, not an online database.
So, no, I won’t be doing this.
On a side note, I’ve been ‘invited’ to have an aneurism screening. On balance, I suppose the idea isn’t necessarily a bad one. However, I am pissed off. Not because they sent me two letters inviting me, but because they have booked an appointment without bothering to check whether this will be convenient. Years ago Mrs L and I had a similar ‘invite’ to attend a biobank assessment. Neither of us attended. We were both annoyed by this arrogant assumption that we should attend when they decide it’s convenient, rather than ask for a mutually convenient date.
A letter offering the invite is one thing, to presumptuously book an appointment and expect me to turn up is another. Again, the risk here is low. I don’t have any plans to attend. I have a somewhat fatalistic approach to death – if your time is up, it’s up. I’m not a huge fan of screening for everything under the sun. While it may catch some illness early, it has the overall effect of creating unnecessary worry. I prefer to deal with things if or when they happen. Sure, I might be taking a risk, but overall, it’s a low one. I’m getting older. One day I will die. It’s the nature of things. We can’t stop it.
I’m always irritated by claims of ‘reduce the risk of a heart attack by X%’ by taking particular drugs or changing your lifestyle. Firstly there is no guarantee that the intervention will work in your individual case, and secondly it implies that the risk of cancer or a stroke must increase.
They often say doing X increases the risk of a certain type of cancer by 50%: what they omit to say is that the risk of that type of cancer is only 0.1% so it is now 0.15%.
i had the same with the aneurism screening. i said i couldn’t attend the first appointment so they sent another which was again inconvenient. This was several months ago. It’s all gone quiet since.
Of course they never link anything up – i’m in for an operation in a couple of weeks and i’ll probably be in hospital for another couple of weeks recovering from the surgery. i’d have thought they could combine the 2, but experience shows that despite having everything on computer it’s never linked up.
Tell me about it. Joined up thinking is beyond them.
As for making an appointment without consultation, that just infuriates me.
Being a type 2 diabetic I get regular check ups anyway, these are arranged at a mutually agreed time. The yearly eye screenings fo diabetics involve an appointment that is just made on your behalf, with contact details for you to change it if not convenient. I’m a bit more laid back than you so I never thought of it as an issue.
To me it’s incredible bad mannered to make an appointment without even bothering to check first. It’s something I have a low tolerance for.
I have no fundamental problem with screening, I’m one of those who would like to know if there is something lurking. Something will get me sooner or later of course, but if I was lying there, farting my last, years before my due date because of something that might have been spotted early, I imagine I would be a tad irked.
No problem with being asked if I want to be screened, but, as you say, this is not that. It’s their idea of “nudge” and the insidious part is that they assume you will be grateful to the almighty, omnicompetent and all powerful state for deigning to consider you.
Not remotely “nudge” of course, but who are we to question?
I imagine your refusal has been duly recorded on your file. I have ignored flu jabs for a number of years now, and since I cancelled my BBCgeld, I am getting the letters with tiresome regularity. My file is doubtless growing too.
This ingratitude cannot be tolerated. I wonder if the care home I will doubtless find myself in for my final year or two will be some sort of re-education camp. How could they possibly resist?
Hi Longrider. On the screening, you have I presume been invited for an ultrasound check on whether you have an abdominal aortic aneurysm (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdominal_aortic_aneurysm ).
I strongly recommend you go for this non-invasive screening, as the condition is highly dangerous and chronic high blood pressure is a significant (partial) cause.
It is very regretable that your regional NHS does not provide self-booking as an extra practicality; however, this is a common problem with the NHS. There are perhaps some possibilities that you can get a convenient date by providing the NHS booking clerk with a list of good or bad dates from your diary, when you next cancel the offered bad date; or by asking your GP or their receptionist.
Good luck and long life.
Best regards
I’ll pass, same way I did the colon cancer screening. I was supposed to send my excrement by post.
There are worse things than dying.
They must have a file or a status somewhere on us and how compliant we are.
During the COVID shenanigans, they booked my wife an appointment. Neither of us wanted the jab.
She, like a polite person, responded to the appointment letter to cancel it. I ignored it.
She got a second appointment made at a later date. That one she ignored. Then a third. And a fourth before they finally got the hint.
I didn’t get any after the first one.
Seems the best way is to ignore them and they go away. Engagement just encourages them, like pigeons or stray dogs.
I did the same as you. I ignored it an they eventually got the message.
More box-ticking exercises by the NHS. If only the GPs would see patients who report problems, then refer (if necessary) to consultants for meaningful treatment within acceptable timescales, then the NHS would be doing its job. I’ve had too much of my active lifetime wasted by their inaction leaving me to pay for a private op which (so far) has been very successful. I had to struggle to find the money, but it was worth it to be able to get mobile again.
I find I phone up, say its inconvenient and on the phone they find a suitable date. I don’t get paid if I take time off from work so prefer to have appointments on my days off, especially as you end up hanging around ages.