The NHS Health Check Leadership Forum

On Wednesday 12^th June 2013, London’s Excel centre will be playing host to this year’s Commissioning Show. With keynote speakers that include the Minister for Care and Support, the Chair of NHS England, and the Shadow Health Secretary, the event is set to attract an audience keen to stay abreast of current developments in health.

In conjunction with the Commissioning Show, the NHS Health Check Leadership Forum will be staged for those individuals specifically involved in the commissioning and coordination of the NHS Health Checks.

The Leadership Forum – made up of a panel and a select audience – will provide the only event specific to the NHS Health Checks at this year’s show. As such, the platform it offers will be catering for all and any discussion associated with the challenges and benefits currently facing those deploying population-based cardiovascular screening programmes.

Panel members involved in innovative service delivery will talking about their experiences at the sharp end. Others concerned with researching the evidence base and developing systems to get data into GP practices will be sharing their findings.

The panel will be made up of the following individuals:

Andy Cowper: Comment Editor at Health Service Journal, Editor of Health Policy Insight and Event Chair and programmer for Wellards. Andy will chair the session

Dr. Michael Soljak: As a Clinical Research Fellow at Imperial College London, Dr. Soljak is part of the research team evaluating the NHS Health Check programme. With work published in both the British Medical Journal and the Journal of Public Health, Dr. Soljak is in an ideal position to respond to questions concerning the emerging NHS Health Check evidence base.

Jayne Herring: As a member of the Directorate of Public Health in the North East, Jayne oversees the management of public health contracts in North Tees. Having been commissioning population based CVD screening since before the NHS Health Check programme came into being, Jayne has had to recognise and overcome many challenges. She’ll be sharing this experience in innovative public health provision.

Jacqui Deakin: As Durham’s Quality and Health Improvement Lead, Jacqui’s knowledge covers the spectrum of roles and responsibilities associated with the NHS Health Checks. From getting different providers to ensure a consistent delivery, to engaging with communities and motivating providers to perform, Jacqui will be talking about the practical considerations of the programme.

Julie Evason: Managing Director at Health Diagnostics. For 30 years Julie has been developing health screening solutions and has supported the rollout of NHS Health Checks projects across 25 PCTs. Latest developments include coordinating the return of granular data to any clinical system.

Due to the specialist topics under discussion, attendance at the event is via invite only. If you’re you’d like to attend, please send your declaration of interest to info@healthdiagnostics.co.uk. Include your name, organisation and job role.

The NHS Health Check Leadership Forum will take place at a venue on the doorstep of London’s Excel on the 12^th June @ 12.30.

FREE delegate passes to the Health+Care show (which includes the Commissioning Show) are available for healthcare and public sector professionals. To book a complimentary pass to the show, click here

The public’s health: pitfalls and possibilities

And so it begins...

Welcome to Health Diagnostics’ new blog. Having developed a cutting edge cardiovascular health screening solution, it seemed time to take to the online message boards to tell people about it!

That’s precisely what we’ll be doing here. Expect to read about the latest developments within population health screening, with particular attention being paid to England’s NHS Health Check programme.

The challenges currently facing primary care will prove demanding, whilst the changes afoot are equally as diverse. With the UK economy set to have to accommodate for an extra 11 million obese adults by 2030, a central question public health is asking itself is, ‘how can we meaningfully intervene now and prevent this predicted burden from overwhelming the NHS?’

The diabetes epidemic associated with this dangerous hike in obesity levels has been well documented, with charities such as Diabetes UK doing valuable research on the likely economic and social impacts. The simple fact has been stated – we’re ‘sleeping walking into a crisis’. The question now arising is ‘are we’re really doing enough to shake ourselves into action?’

The anticipated response needs to be as profound as the potential problem. For the UK to avoid a situation whereby the average person leads an inactive and inhibited life due to largely preventable ill-health, the measures that Public Health England take now will have a drastic effect on the shape of the coming years.

Fortunately PHE appear to be rising to the challenge. The recently published Our Priorities 2013/14 document explicitly states the organisation's intent towards:

'Helping people to live longer and more healthy lives by reducing preventable deaths and the burden of ill health associated with smoking, high blood pressure, obesity, poor diet, poor mental health, insufficient exercise, and alcohol'

And a primary way in which they’re going to support people to live healthier lives is: 

'By implementing NHS Health Checks to 15 million eligible people. We will support the roll-out of the Health Check programme by local authorities, assuring full implementation across the country'

The proof will lie in the pudding – and specifically whether more people pick the healthy option more of the time – however the intent from the newly endowed health authorities is loud and clear.

There will be trying tests associated with carrying out these aims well and ensuring the programme is both targeted with measured outcomes. However with experience in health screening that long pre-dates the inception of the NHS Health Check programme in 2009, Health Diagnostics are well placed to analyse and coordinate the solutions.

As such, some of the topics you’ll see appearing on this blog over the coming weeks will involve:

-         Plans for the NHS Health Check Leadership Forum

-         Developments in behavioural science and how they’re being integrated into provider training

-         Details on getting patient data back into all GP clinical systems electronically

Comment is encouraged on this blog, and please do also share your views with us on Twitter.

Details on the panel and programme for the NHS Health Check Leadership Forum, which is taking place at this year’s Commissioning Show, will follow next week.

Thanks for reading.