Decommissioning of NHS Health Check Service in Southampton pharmacies announced

Written by admin on Tuesday 14th November 2017

Southampton City Council confirm intention not to re-commission NHS Health Checks in pharmacies when the current contract expires on 31st March 2018

The Southampton commissioners have said "It was a worthwhile pilot, but uptake is too low to commission substantively. There were 34 checks last year, with 7 of the 8 pharmacies completing 0 or just 1 check".

With such low active participation of the service overall, CPSC disappointingly fully understands the decision which the Council have made with regard to ceasing this service at the end of its pilot period. It is a great shame that just as more pharmacies now achieve HLP status, they will no longer have the opportunity to offer this to people visiting their pharmacies. From April 2018, suitably identified patients who maybe at risk of the key target preventable conditions should be sign-posted from community pharmacies to their GP surgery for provision of the NHS Health Check service.

The majority of the small number of people having a health check in a pharmacy were of low CVD risk too.

NHS Health Checks will continue to be available through GP practices.