According to figures from the Department of Health, Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced 14 million ‘low risk’ people aged between 40 and 74 could now see their 5-year check-ups happen online.
The tests, at present carried out at a GP surgery by a doctor, nurse or healthcare assistant, check for conditions such as kidney disease, heart disease, diabetes and stroke.
Low-risk patients may have to take blood pressure readings, answer online health questionnaires and talk to a doctor via an app.
Steve Fouch from the Christian Medical Fellowship told Premier:
“They’re looking at this really only for what they would call low risk people. So people who haven’t actually got obvious health problems, it’s a way of trying to reduce the number of people necessarily physically presenting for an appointment.
“Not a lot of people actually access their GP for health screening. That is one of the big problems is that many people do not go to these appointments anyway. So making them online might not actually make any big difference.
“These things will require you still to go in to a GP surgery to have a blood test and obviously you can weigh yourself at home, but you’re not necessarily going to have the equipment to check your own blood pressure properly.
“All of those sorts of other things you actually do need a health professional to be there with you. There’s…
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