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The BBC are reporting: People to be offered 'health MoT'
Quote:
Plans to offer "health MoTs" to every person in England in a bid to stop them developing serious illnesses will form a key part of a government white paper.
The voluntary checks - offered at five points in a person's life - would aim to find those at risk from illnesses such as cancer and heart disease.
Patients would be offered advice on changing their lifestyle and possibly the assistance of a personal trainer.
The paper, due out on Monday, suggests more money for community health care.
Health questionnaire
Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt told the Daily Telegraph those considered most at risk through the checks would be allocated a personal health trainer to help them improve their diet and set exercise goals.
She told the paper: "People don't want nannying or to be told what they must do, but they do want more information, advice and support."
The MoTs, or life checks as they will be known, would be offered at birth, age 11 and 18, after the birth of a first child and when patients reach their 50s.
Ms Hewitt said the checks - comprising a questionnaire and possibly blood pressure and blood tests - would examine diet, smoking habits and weight.
"It will look at your lifestyle and the medical history of your family. It will examine your diet, smoking habits and weight.
"If you are high-risk, there will be a follow-up. You will get a health trainer."
Citizens' summit
However, she added personal trainers would not be available to everyone "for an hour a week on the NHS", but would be able to work out a programme and keep in contact with patients.
The proposal was developed after more than 75% of 1,000 people who took part in a "citizens' summit" in Birmingham last year said they would like a regular health check, Ms Hewitt said.
Deprived areas are expected to be the first to start offering the checks, with them becoming more widely available by 2007 or 2008.
The checks are part of a larger move by the government to see 5% of resources shifted from secondary health care to primary care over the next 10 years.
BBC's political correspondent Gary O'Donoghue said critics were likely to question whether the MoTs should be on offer to everyone, as they would involve testing perfectly health people.
However, he added: "Following a public consultation ministers are firmly of the view that people want life checks to prevent them becoming ill in the first place."
"Health MoT's" to prevent illness in England
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