NHS Health Checks in a primary care dental setting – an opportunity for the profession to maximise uptake for public health partners?

Key Points Discusses the need for dental teams to embrace and engage with healthcare or public health partnerships. Presents innovative approaches, involving multi-agencies, to improve the uptake of NHS Health Checks. Shows how skill-mix and working practices of dentists could potentially reach target populations and maximise efficiency and uptake of NHS Health Checks. This opinion piece considers an opportunity for primary dental care practitioners to work in partnership with public health teams to maximise the uptake of the NHS Health Check. Public Health England and Local Authority partners remain committed to offering the NHS Health Check to those aged 40–74 years old. The programme previously explored alternative points of delivery – such as community pharmacists. This piece discusses and reflects on the efforts within Manchester to use skill mix in primary dental care services and widen access to target individuals eligible for an NHS Health Check. The pilot schemes in Manchester illustrated the willingness and enthusiasm for primary care dentists to embrace change and work alongside new partners to deliver patient benefit beyond the provision of dental care. However, substantial barriers to implementation prevented the desired level of progress.