Annual checks can lengthen life

A group set-up following the Winterbourne View scandal is urging more people with learning disabilities to attend their annual health check-up.

Healthwatch South Gloucestershire said regular health checks could prevent people from dying unnecessarily.

It formed after BBC Panorama exposed abuse of patients at Winterbourne View hospital 10 years ago. Only about 36% of people with learning difficulties are believed to have an annual GP health check-up.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS). said the lack of regular, medical observations contributed to them having a life expectancy of 20 years lower than in the wider population.

Healthwatch South Gloucestershire, a regional, independent health and social care champion, has created a checklist to encourage more people to attend appointments to help them improve their life expectancy.

Vicky Marriott from the group said: "It is our unrelenting mission to listen and share people's lived experience so that the information informs how health and social care services improve.

"We recently listened to people with learning disabilities and their families and developed with them an accessible info-sheet packed full of easy-to-read explanations about the lifesaving benefits of annual health checks."

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Source: BBC News, 1 June 2021