Teams across six Cheshire and Merseyside local authorities are delivering innovative, targeted, and tailored approaches to NHS Health Checks and Severe Mental Illness (SMI) annual reviews thanks to funding from NHS England and Improvement.
The six pilot sites including Halton, Cheshire West and Chester, Wirral, Liverpool, Sefton and St Helens have been working to improve the uptake of NHS Health Checks and / or annual reviews for patients with SMI to reduce cardiovascular disease (CVD) inequalities in target groups.
Working with input from target groups and local partners, the pilot site teams are learning from each other as part of a community of practice as they design and implement solutions making NHS Health Checks and SMI annual reviews more accessible and better suited to the needs of those who stand to benefit the most.
Valuable insights into what does and doesn’t work locally, and why, are being captured so key lessons and recommendations can be shared between sites and with other areas.
This work will help more people from communities at higher risk of CVD, such as those from deprived areas, certain ethnic minority groups and patients with severe mental illness, to have CVD risk factors (e.g., high blood pressure, obesity, high cholesterol) identified as part of NHS Health Checks and SMI annual reviews, and to be supported to take steps to reduce their risk.
Dr Mel Roche, Public Health Consultant, Lead for the Collaborative’s High Blood Pressure and Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Programme and adviser to the ICS’ High Blood Pressure and Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Recovery Programme, said:
“Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of ill health, premature death, and health inequalities across Cheshire and Merseyside.
“Those from groups at high risk of heart attack and stroke (e.g., due to high levels of deprivation, certain ethnic minority groups or patients with severe mental illness), are less likely to take up the offer of preventative health checks such as NHS Health Checks or SMI Annual Reviews.
“With these pilot sites, we aim to reduce the prevalence of cardiovascular disease complications such as heart attacks, strokes, and vascular dementia across Cheshire and Merseyside, particularly in those from target populations and to put into place the building blocks for a sustainable sub-regional population health approach to CVD prevention checks and services.
“Areas beyond the pilot sites will benefit from the new insights, supporting effective targeted approaches to preventative CVD checks to be adopted more widely.”
For further information on the NHS Health Checks pilot, please contact Dr Mel Roche, via melanieroche@wirral.gov.uk.