A service evaluation of an Annual Physical Health Check service
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Patients with Severe Mental Illness and clinical staff members’ experiences and views of the Annual Physical Health Check service in general practice: a service evaluation.
IRAS ID
353601
Contact name
Mathijs Lucassen
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
City St George's, University London
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 5 months, 4 days
Research summary
This study explores the views and experiences of patients with Severe Mental Illness on the Annual Physical Health Check service in a general practice. This includes the views and perceptions of clinical staff delivering this service i.e. GPs and nurses.
The SMI cohort faces one of the largest health inequalities in England where physical health conditions can go under-diagnosed resulting in poorer health outcomes (Public Health England, 2018). This has significant financial implications on the NHS due to delayed prevention and therefore increased use of secondary care services (Lewis et al., 2023). This adds further pressures in an environment where capacity is struggling to meet demand (Royal College of Emergency Medicine, 2022). Consequently, a preventative approach, which is the aim of the Annual Physical Health Check, is paramount (Lewis et al., 2023). However, the uptake of these health checks remains poor and the understanding of this is unclear at a local level.References:
Lewis, J., Weich, S., O’Keeffe, C., Stone, T., Julin, J., Bell, N., Doyle, M., Lucock, M. and Mason, S. (2023) Use of urgent, emergency and acute care by mental health users: A record-level cohort study, PLoS One, 18(2), pp.1-19.
Public Health England (2018) Severe mental illness (SMI) and physical health inequalities: briefing. Available at: Severe mental illness (SMI) and physical health inequalities: briefing - GOV.UK
Royal College of Emergency Medicine (2022) Patients in mental health crisis twice as likely to spend 12-hours or more in Emergency Departments than other patients. Available at: Patients in mental health crisis twice as likely to spend 12-hours or more in Emergency Departments than other patients | RCEM (Accessed: 10 December 2024).
REC name
East Midlands - Leicester South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/EM/0122
Date of REC Opinion
20 Jun 2025
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion