CHANGES to the contract for running NHS Health Checks are being proposed due to the “unacceptable position” of the number being carried out in Dorset.

Contracts to offer the free 40-to-74-year-old check-ups were split between pharmacies and GP partnerships across the county when they were awarded in 2015.

But a report to the county’s joint public health board says that there have been “long-standing difficulties” in some areas, particularly those run by pharmacies, because they do not have access to people’s data.

As a result, the number of people undertaking check-ups is less than a third of what was expected.

Last year a new contract for the £600,000 Dorset scheme was awarded but this has already ended with the provider finding it “an ongoing challenge to access the eligible groups”.

In 2017/18, 7,193 NHS Health Checks were carried out across Dorset, less than a third of the target of 23,659.

Public Health Dorset and Dorset clinical commissioning group carried out a review of the provision of health checks earlier this year in a big to increase uptake.

It is now being recommended that the joint public health board approve the awarding of contracts to individual GP surgeries.