One in four sent to GP by health-check machine

A pilot for a new workplace health self-assessment machine in Essex has seen about one in four people referred to their GP.

Firms in Basildon and Brentwood signed up to the SISU Mobile Digital Health Checks Programme, but now the county council has urged businesses across Essex to sign up.

The scheme, which sees a self-service system installed at work and looks for high blood pressure and many other symptoms, is being rolled out across the county.

Since the launch in March 2025, more than 5,600 health checks have been completed and 1,400 people were advised to seek a follow-up with their NHS doctor.

More than 2,500 referrals have been made to local support services.

About a fifth of health checks were taken outside normal GP opening hours, a council spokesperson said.

Chris Hossack, Reform UK's cabinet member for residents and community at the council, went through the process which assesses body mass index, blood pressure, heart rate and said it "even does a high level assessment of your mental wellbeing".

"It's really simple to use and immediately after you've done it they email your report across," he told BBC Essex's Sonia Watson on the breakfast show.

The machine also includes checks for high cholesterol and diabetes.

London Stansted Airport has used the scheme and its people adviser Elaine Webster said one employee had delivered a glowing review.

"Her doctor had asked her to thank me for having the machine installed because it actually saved her life," she said.

"Wellbeing can sound like a big corporate word, but it is about looking after ourselves and looking after each other."

The initiative was first announced by the Rishi Sunak-led Conservative government in June 2023.

Mark Heasman, group chief executive of Provide Community, which supports the scheme on behalf of Essex Working Well, said: "It has been so encouraging since we started this last year to see 88 different employers in Essex have hosted one of our stations.

"So many of us are living with hidden symptoms that we don't know about, and we don't find out about, unless we have our health checked."

He reassured people the checks would be carried out independently from the employer, and the results would not be made available to them.

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