Don’t shun health checks says Dr Zahid Chauhan

The Government has announced new and free health checks in a bid to prevent 150,000 deaths each year.

As part of that programme, they want us to become more savvy about our own well-being and ensure we know our cholesterol levels as well as we know our bank pin numbers.

The NHS can only do so much to encourage us to look after ourselves, though. We must seize the initiative and take advantage of the tests and screening programmes that prevent serious illness.

The bad news, however, is that at the moment, we are not.

Fewer than half of those eligible for an NHS health check actually bothered to take them up.

For those over forty, these 20-minute sessions, where weight and blood pressure are measured, are actually free.

The routine check can spot everything from heart problems to dementia to propensity to strokes and could prolong your life.

And yet we shun them.

Similarly, around half of people given free bowel cancer kits actually agree to use them.

And while charities such as Jo's Trust have done all that they can to encourage women to take part in cervical cancer screening, rates of take-up have hit a 21-year low, with young people in particular avoiding tests.

• www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/126082/local-beauty-salons-offering-free-treatments-as-incentive-for-women-to-attend-cervical-screening-tests

Busy lives and no time are often used as excuses for non-attendance.

But I would argue that this is nothing compared to the stress you will feel if diagnosed with a serious condition and the heart-ache you will experience when you realise that you could have combatted or even avoided that illness, if you had just taken a few minutes to get tested.

Then there seems to be a fear of being told-off for your current lifestyle.

‘The doctor will tell me to stop smoking’, ‘the nurse will shout at me for drinking too much’, ‘they will make me go on a diet’.

NHS staff have an understanding as to the triggers that lead to addictions or obesity, and they should never be judgemental, and what they say to you is for your benefit, not theirs.

We seem to live up to the cliché ‘ignorance is bliss’ when it comes to knowing about our own health.

But we will never improve our lives unless we take a few moments to access what is free and good for us.

My day-to day work as a GP shows me that most tests simply rule out potential conditions; but if they turn out to be positive, we at least have the tools to do something about it.

So, when details of a health test come your way, don't pass on them. They may just save your life.