High-level summary

In 2014, Newcastle City Council set out to transform the lives of thousands of people across the City by rolling out a targeted programme of public health support aimed at helping residents live healthier for longer. To achieve this ambition, the Council partnered with local community health organisations, HealthWORKS and Newcastle United Foundation, as well as a number of pharmacies. These organisations have been responsible for delivering community-led cardiovascular health checks using a digital toolkit provided by Health Diagnostics.

Solution components supplied

• An interactive and customised tool for patient-focused delivery
• Electronic data transfer to patient records
• Advanced data management including analytic intelligence on local health trends and provider performance
• Provider invoicing
• CPD certified training
• Consultative services on all elements of delivery and administration 
• Point-of-care testing equipment and consumables
• A fully accredited quality assurance scheme for cholesterol testing

Local outcomes

Health and demographic outcomes

• 6500 interactive and motivational health checks provided to residents of Newcastle in community locations. Many of these have been delivered to individuals with profiles that predictive risk calculations indicate are likely to be those most in need of support to prevent cardiovascular disease.
• 41% of the individuals reached live in Newcastle’s more deprived areas (i.e. precisely those that Public Health England claim are “four times as likely to die prematurely than those [living] in the least deprived [areas])
• 300 people identified as having >10% cardiovascular risk (the NICE threshold for triggering a potential statin prescription)
• 13 people potentially helped to avoid a cardiovascular event through detection and appropriate management of high blood pressure
• 4 deaths potentially avoided through detection and appropriate management of high blood pressure

Training outcomes

• 196 Newcastle training delegates since 2014
• Average satisfaction score awarded by training delegates is 9.3/10
• Average improvement in knowledge levels, based on validated assessment scores, is 20%
• Feedback from delegates with 10 years+ health check experience stating they “have learnt something new”

Awards and recognition

• Health Diagnostics have been shortlisted for the ‘Support Services’ award at the Academic Health Science Network’s 2019 NHS in the North: Excellence in Supply Awards specifically for our work supporting Newcastle City Council
• Newcastle’s outreach teams were shortlisted for the award for ’Best Impact on Patient Experience’ at the 2015 NHS Health Check Awards

Project management feedback

• According to Lynda Seery, Newcastle City Council’s Public Health Specialist:
  • “Having looked at what was available, Health Options stood out as a really friendly and intuitive system that’s actually quite different to anything else out there. When you go to a GP or a hospital, there’s often a screen or some way of recording clinical information that separates the patient and clinician. Crucially, the patient frequently isn’t privy to what’s being recorded. You don’t find that with the Health Options; both people share the screen on an equal basis. You go through it page by page and the person having the health check is fully involved in the whole process. It’s very patient-focused and actually quite innovative.”
• According to Claire Laydon-Baptist, Senior Manager at HealthWORKS Newcastle:
  • “The software we use to deliver NHS Health Checks is great for helping us show the effect of making these changes. We can instantly show how someone’s heart age would change if they were to give up smoking. It’s a really supportive tool and we’ve seen it make a big difference to a lot of people. It’s also very visual and lots of people respond well to the colourful risk graphics”