Dear colleagues,
We are writing to you in regards to Learning Disability Annual Health Checks. NHS England have confirmed that we should be returning to business as usual and endeavouring to ensure that everyone over 14 years old with a learning disability is offered a health check this year. It is more important than ever that we are supporting our patients with learning disabilities to make sure they are healthy and well, and that any health issues are identified as early as possible. We are therefore asking surgeries, if you haven’t already, to begin contacting patients and inviting them to attend their health check. Wherever possible, we would also ask that urgent priority is given to those patients who were unable to have their health check in 2019/20.
In the present circumstance, surgeries may wish to incorporate a virtual element of the check and offer a “blended” approach where this is appropriate for patients.
Supporting people with learning disabilities is one of the QOF Quality Improvement domains 2020/21; increasing the uptake of Learning Disability Annual Health Checks is a key part of this and has excellent potential to be the focus of a QI project. Further guidance on this from NHS England and NHS Improvement can be found here.
To support you with delivery of Learning Disability Annual Health Checks we have attached new guidance developed by the NHS England London region, plus a short pack of local resources. Webinars will also be hosted for GP colleagues in place of the annual Learning Disability Health Check conference, and details of these will follow shortly.
If you have any questions or require any additional support, please contact your local community learning disability team or email the North East London Learning Disabilities and Autism programme team at lda.nel@nhs.net
Kind regards,
Dr Jyoti Sood
North East London Clinical Lead for Learning Disabilities and Autism