034C NHS Health Check
This folder (v3.0) sits within 034 Eligibility. It was previously found in 020 Practice Administration.
The NHS Health Check eligibility searches are provided to help Practices call and recall patients based on the nationally specified criteria. A separate folder of searches (030 NHS Health Check reporting) is provided to make the detailed reporting requirements as easy as possible to submit each quarter.
Primary Care IT strongly recommends that this article is understood before the searches are used in your Practice.
Searches in the top level folder are designed to support Practices regularly inviting patients for an NHS Health Check. All searches have been built with the ability to be run on different dates using the Relative Run Date function. This may be helpful for Practices who have not run a recall for several months.
Cohort for NHS Health Check
The important search in this folder is PA-301) Eligible for a NHS health check, which takes all 40-74 year olds, then excludes any patient with a pre-existing cardiovascular condition. Do not use this search for recall as it includes anybody who is eligible for the programme, even if they received an NHS health check within the last 5 years.
PA-302) Takes the eligible population from PA-301 and removes those who have declined or attended a NHS health check in the last 5 years. These patietns have all received at least one invite so it may not be necessary to invite them again but they are still eligible to receive an opportunistic NHS health check or you may wish to use this list to send out additional invites.
The Eligible for a NHS health check search could be used to gauge the level of demand; take the total number and divide by 5 to obtain a theoretical annual number, then multiply by an expected uptake percentage (eg: 40% or 0.4) to estimate the number of appointments needed across a 12 month period.
The cardiovascular condition search is a crucial search as it identifies patients with any of the following conditions or medications:
- Unresolved hypertension
- Coronary heart disease
- History of stroke or TIA
- Unresolved diabetes mellitus
- Familial hypercholesterolaemia *
- Peripheral Arterial Disease
- Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD3-5 or renal failure)
- Unresolved atrial fibrillation
- Unresolved heart failure
- An issue of a statin in the last 6 months
- An issue of an alternative lipid lowering drug in the last 6 months (bempedoic acid / ezetimibe / icosapent ethyl / inclisiran / PCSK9 inhibitor)
- The most recent QRISK result is at least 20%
* Familial hypercholesterolaemia has been defined rather than a broader definition of Hypercholesterolaemia (to include Pure and Secondary) since this is the definition written in the NHS Health Check Best practice guidance. PCIT reached out to the national health check team for clarification in June 2024.
Patients on the palliative care register are also excluded from this search which is intended to avoid inappropriate invitations being sent to patients who may be at end of life. The handy protocol HP046 Eligible for NHS Health Check does not exclude palliative care patients, so if such a patient with no cardiovascular conditions enquired asking for a health check they would not be told that they are not eligible.
Data Admin
Declined NHS health check in last 5 years
This search counts the number of eligible patients who have actively declined an NHS health check in the last 5 years. These patients are still eligible to receive an opportunistic NHS health check, but it is not necessary to invite them again.
Patients who declined but were subsequently made ineligible either by age or a new diagnosis are not counted, nor are patients who declined but subsequently changed their mind and completed an NHS Health Check.
Has had NHS health check in last 5 years
This is a standalone search to identify currently registered patients who have had an NHS health check. Some patients counted may be no longer eligible if they have been subsequently diagnosed with a cardiovascular condition or turned 75.
Patients who completed their NHS Health Check at a previous surgery are included in this figure.
Inappropriate for NHS health check ever
This search will identify all patients who have been coded as Inappropriate for NHS health check at any time. These patients are still eligible to receive an opportunistic NHS health check but it is not necessary to invite them again.
Targeted Recall
This folder includes some cohorts of patients have been excluded from eligibility criteria at a local area. They are still included in the national eligibility criteria so have not been removed from the main cohorts but they may also be groups who would benefit from review of any reasonable adjustments recorded prior to being sent invites for a NHS health check.
Coding
All invitations for programmes such as NHS Health Checks should be routinely coded. Some areas have a reporting data point to monitor how many patients have been invited. Adding invitation codes also helps to ensure that the same patients are not invited too frequently. While there is no limit to the number of times a patient can be invited in any 5 year period, the Practice's capacity to process invitations and provide appointments will be limited so these searches have been designed to limit the number of invitations a patient is offered over the 5 year period.
Relevant coding for NHS Health Check invitations is provided below.
Invitation
| SNOMED | Term |
| 758661000000102 | NHS Health Check invitation |
| 523261000000108 | NHS Health Check telephone invitation |
| 522261000000101 | NHS Health Check verbal invitation |
| 523281000000104 | NHS Health Check invitation first letter |
| 523301000000103 | NHS Health Check invitation second letter |
| 523321000000107 | NHS Health Check invitation third letter |
| 980621000000105 | NHS Health Check invitation email |
| 980641000000103 | NHS Health Check invitation short message service text message |
Declined
| SNOMED | Term |
| 758661000000102 | NHS Health Check declined |
NHS Health Check completed
| SNOMED | Term |
| 523221000000100 | NHS Health Check completed |
840391000000101 | NHS Health Check completed by third party |
1728811000006108 | NHS Health Check completed by outside agency (EMIS code) |
1728801000006105 | NHS Health Check completed by pharmacist (EMIS code) |
1728791000006109 | NHS Health Check completed by practice (EMIS code) |
Version History
v3.0 Moved PA-302 into Cohort folder and added Targeted Recall folder
v2.2 Added alternative lipid lowering therapy and QRISK >20 as exclusions.
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