How healthy is the annual health check?

This paper aims to provide an assessment of organisational implementation of the healthcare standards focusing on the annual health check (AHC) in the UK NHS.

Using a postal questionnaire a national survey of all acute and specialist NHS Trusts in England was undertaken. The survey yielded a total of 102 responses, which equates to a 59 per cent response rate.

The findings suggest considerable variation and diversity in the rate of progress individual Trusts made towards implementing the AHC in its first year. However, across many of the organisations surveyed, there was good evidence of some progress towards ensuring that basic operational and strategic components of the framework were in place.

The research appears to reflect the findings of earlier work on the implementation of clinical governance, suggesting that few lessons have been learnt from previous policy initiatives and raising important questions for the future of health care standards.

The findings could be used to support future national health care initiatives by giving an insight into how organisations respond to and manage the process of standards.

This study makes a number of recommendations to facilitate smooth implementation of standards in health care. These include the introduction of a national IT solution; development of regional/national networks; more timely, relevant and consistent national guidance and, the definition of minimum information requirements needed for organisational assurance.