Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 July 2021
3078. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Health his views on granting each Irish resident an annual general practitioner check-up as a preventative and public measure.; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40188/21]
View answerGeneral health checks involve a contact between a health professional and a person that is not motivated by their symptoms, and where several tests are performed to assess their general health. The goal is to prevent future illness through earlier detection of disease or risk factors, or to provide reassurance. However, few of the tests commonly included in these general or annual health checks have been evaluated in high quality randomised trials.
A Cochrane Review of General health checks in adults for reducing morbidity and mortality from disease was published in 2019. The Review finds that health checks have little or no effect on the risk of death from any cause or on the risk of death from cancer and little or no effect on the risk of death from cardiovascular cause. Likewise, health checks have little or no effect on heart disease and little or no effect on stroke. A systematic review of health checks in general practice conducted in 2014 and a previous Cochrane Review of systematic versus opportunistic screening for cardiovascular risk conducted in 2016 reported similar results.
In summary results do not support the use of general health checks aimed at a general population. Public healthcare initiatives to systematically offer general health checks are not supported by the best available evidence.
The Government approach has been to fund programmes providing health checks to specific groups. The GP Chronic Disease Management (CDM) programme which is being phased in, having commenced last year, will involve the ongoing monitoring of patients’ conditions. Under the programme, patients with one or more of the specified chronic conditions, receive two scheduled reviews with their GP and Practice Nurse in a 12-month period. These reviews include patient education, preventative care, medication review, physical examination, investigations, and an individual care plan. The CDM programme also includes case finding and an annual preventive visit for patients identified with high risk of cardiovascular disease or diabetes. Over 430,000 people will benefit under this programme when it is fully rolled out in 2023.
GPs who have signed up to the under sixes GP contract also provide age-based preventive checks focused on health and wellbeing and the prevention of disease to children under the age of six. There is also an agreed cycle of care for children diagnosed with asthma, under which GPs carry out an annual review of each child where the doctor has diagnosed asthma.
