The East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT) Health Facilitation Team has worked with Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Board (BLMK ICB) and primary care teams to improve annual health checks.
Historically, the footprint had a low uptake but the partnership approach has now seen BLMK achieve the national target of 75 per cent completed annual health checks for 2022/2023.
Having a low uptake of annual health checks often meant that people with a learning disability were not being referred to other health professionals in a timely manner when changes in their health had been identified, which could have led to a potential deterioration in their conditions.
Annual health checks also perform an important role people in helping people with learning disabilities better understand what their local GP service can provide for them and learning how to use it. The process supports health care professionals to better understand what reasonable adjustments people with a learning disability need to be able to engage more effectively in healthcare.
The Health Facilitation Team (HFS) team supported primary care with a range of things in order to ensure they used a robust process, part of which included providing quality annual health checks which meant that people who have a learning disability are given a more effective health assessment which helps to pick up on underlying health conditions that may need input.
The use of data has been integral in informing the teams as to which GP practices and Primary Care Networks (PCNs) to liaise with to offer more in-depth support.
Primary care LD registers are also now regularly reviewed by HFS to ensure they are accurate. Accuracy means the right people are offered the check and that time is better spent being invested by clinicians in doing better quality health checks.
“This is a hugely important part of ensuring the healthcare system really looks after some of the most vulnerable members of our communities,” said Ruth Cooper, ELFT operational and strategic lead for Learning Disability.
“I am incredibly proud of the Health Facilitation Service and system partners for their shared commitment and determination to increase the uptake and quality of annual health checks for service users in BLMK.”
Ruth also highlighted the role of service users, who provided input by sharing the barriers they faced in engaging with the health checks.