Dorset is performing poorly for health checks for older people – 8,000 down across the Dorset and Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole Council areas, compared to similar councils.

It is also less well funded by the government for public health work with Dorset residents having £100 less spent on them, on average, compared to residents in the London Borough or Kensington and Chelsea, or Blackpool.

Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (BCP) residents do slightly better, but the council area is only just in the top one third of council figures for public health spending.

The grant money works out at £38.10 per head in Dorset and £51.70 in the BCP area, compared to the England average of £66.21.

County-wide director of public health, Sam Crowe, told councillors that the grants are based on population needs and historic figures, making the Dorset allocation the 13th lowest in the country and BCP 55th of 152 council areas, per head.

At the top end Kensington and Chelsea receive £140 per head and Blackpool £138.

Mr Crowe says each year the combined area gets around £25m for public health work – with some services performing better than others.

One of the areas he highlighted is health checks for those aged 40 to 74, which should be offered to everyone, but where there is now a reluctance from some primary care services and pharmacies to carry them out – because of other work pressures.

The director told a joint public health committee that Dorset remained "way off" the benchmark for the level of checks carried out, compared to similar areas, and will need to carry out another 5,000 checks in the BCP area and 3,000 in the Dorset Council area to reach the performance of similar council areas.

He and the committee chairman, David Brown, both in their 50s, revealed that neither had yet been offered the check by their GPs.

Mr Crowe said his service would be doing what it could in the year ahead to encourage a better take up of the checks which often picks up life-changing conditions.

His annual report for 2022-23 shows that most public health services in both council areas have recovered well from the pandemic period with good performances from sexual health services, drug and alcohol and in other areas including for younger people and families.

He highlighted the work of the LiveWell Dorset service which, he said offered an effective return of £12 in benefits for each £1 spent, through helping people improve their own health which, in turn, reduces the need for hospital admissions and long-term conditions.

He said the service was also recognised for its partnership work, especially at outpatient assessment units in Poole and Dorchester – offering people health advice prior to, and after, planned surgery. This included a weight loss programme where 40per cent of weight management clients lost 5% of their body weight within 3months.

The top spending areas for Dorset's public health services include services for the 0-19 year old age range at £11.2million; sexual health £5.17m; drugs and alcohol £2.6m; LiveWell Dorset £1.02m; smoking cessation £700,000; adult obesity £236,00, and NHS health checks £132,000.

Mr Crowe said that, as with all health services, there was a pressing need to ensure that spending reached the areas where it was most needed, with cardiovascular problems likely to be more common in poorer area.

He said previous research had shown that often there was a greater number of health checks being offered in areas which were wealthier, or which had an older population, although there might be a bigger benefit in encouraging services for poorer and younger areas of the county.