GP health checks are not beneficial

Posted 17/10/2012

An initiative launched in 2009 in England offered patients between the ages of 40 and 74 a free health check. The hope was that these would spot conditions such as heart disease, stroke and diabetes by looking for risk factors such as cholesterol or high blood pressure that otherwise would not be picked up.

However, Danish researchers who have carried out a review of 180,000 patients involved in health checks in a number of countries, report that these health checks do not reduce deaths from cancer or heart disease.  

The researchers recommend that these checks should be stopped. They often cause anxiety and may lead to over treatment. The researchers say that any screening programme needs to prove that the benefits outweigh any negative effects such as worry or unnecessary treatment but that they could not demonstrate this on their review.

Trefine Maynard, a solicitor in the Medical Injury team at Ashtons Legal says: “Prevention is always better than cure, but it seems there is now substantial evidence to show that general health MOTs are not providing the health benefits that had been hoped for. We know that GPs are under huge pressure with large patient lists and limited time. From the people who contact us I would say that  GPs’ resources might be better used in giving more time to patients when they do attend with symptoms and concerns.Sadly we see far too many cases where a patient’s concerns have been ignored or mis-diagnosed by their GP, resulting in delay in treatment that can lead to devastating consequences. It is always good to see proactive attempts to prevent disease or treat at an early stage, but this initiative of health MOTs seems to have proved ineffective. I hope that the Department of Health will review the research and consider the best use of GPs’ limited resources.”