THE NHS is working to increase the number of Hampshire people with learning disabilities who take up its free health checks.

People with learning disabilities have, according to the NHS, “poorer physical and mental health” compared to others, but doctors say “this doesn’t need to be the case”.

The NHS wants to address this health inequality by encouraging more people with learning disabilities to get logged on to their GP’s learning-disability register, giving them the chance to access more support and have an annual health check, which might detect health conditions which otherwise go unnoticed.

People aged 14 and over who have been assessed as having moderate, severe or profound learning disabilities, or people with a mild learning disability who have other complex health needs, are entitled to the free check.

People with learning disabilities often have difficulty in recognising illness, communicating their needs and using health services.

But research shows that regular health checks can uncover health conditions which can be simple to treat and make a person feel better, while sometimes serious illnesses are found at an early stage when they can be treated.

Three clinical commissioning groups – which between them plan and commission health services for more than 600,000 people in Hampshire – are working with the two major NHS community-health-service providers in the county on the initiative.

The move was launched to coincide with this week’s Learning Disability Week, from June 19 to 25.

The three NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups involved are: South Eastern Hampshire (which covers Whitehill and Bordon), Portsmouth and Fareham and Gosport. Also involved are the Solent NHS Trust and Southern Health NHS Trust.

The five organisations are mounting a publicity campaign, aimed at people with learning disabilities, their families and carers and staff at GP practices.

The initiative is in response to NHS England’s Learning Disability Programme and the launch of a new national electronic-health-check clinical template, for learning difficulties, produced for GPs to use when providing the annual health check.

Dr Andrew Holden, the primary care lead for the South Eastern Hampshire and Fareham and Gosport Clinical Commissioning Groups, said: “Great strides have been made by many practices in terms of providing health checks to patients with learning disabilities but, of course, we are always striving to improve even further.

“The first step is to ensure that patients with a learning disability are on the learning-disability register, which isn’t always the case.

“We then need to ensure that practices are adding new additional information to a patient’s summary care record.

“This will really help to improve the quality of care for patients when, and if, they are treated by other services, including emergency and urgent care. This may in turn result in fewer calls back to surgeries, freeing up valuable staff time and resources and maximising efficiency across the NHS.”

An summary care record - a short summary of a patient’s GP medical records - gives information to health and care staff, including medicines and allergies.

The annual health check is also a chance for the person to get used to going to their GP practice, which, says the NHS, “reduces their fear of going at other times”. It will involve a general physical examination, including checking weight, heart rate, blood pressure and taking blood and urine samples; asking questions about lifestyle and mental health; a check for epilepsy; a check on prescribed medication; a check on whether any chronic illnesses, such as asthma or diabetes, are being well managed, and a review of any arrangements with other health professionals, such as physiotherapists or speech therapists.