Dear LPG,

I want to appeal to those pensioners and pre-pensioners who have, so far in their lives been truly blessed.    Are you one of those people that never really gets ill, and therefor never really visits the doctor? 

I have done a little survey of ten of my friends and found that four of them fit into this category.  Not very accurate, I know, but it must count for something in the light of how difficult it is to get a doctors’ appointment for most these days.

We also hear so many stories of people who experience really bad health episodes having never had a real day’s illness previously.  

I want readers to know that as long as you are registered with a GP you should be offered a free NHS health check at least once every five years.  The idea is to stop those people who never feel ill enough to see the doctor from missing any illnesses that need to be nipped in the bud.  Such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, kidney disease or high blood pressure.

These checks are supposed to be offered to every adult between the ages of 40 and 75, and even after that if you have any concerns you have the right to request one, although the NHS think once we get to that age we are likely to have some ongoing health issue that takes us to our GP anyway, at which point they will find any other hidden potential health issues that may be waiting in store for us.

We all know how overstretched the NHS are these days, and it really is often the case that unless we really feel ill the bother of making an appointment puts us off checking those little aches and pains that don’t really affect our daily lives. But the inconvenience of getting checked out cannot be a bad thing however well you feel.

KG, New Cross.

LPG found some interesting information on the subject of NHS health checks.  Please find some more general information about getting a health check below…

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In order to get a really rough indication of how you are doing health wise try these online health checks…

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