Ministers are forced to axe ailing website for over-40s

Patronising project costing £700,000 branded a waste of money

THE Scottish Government spent almost £700,000 on an health website which was axed after only two years because it was so unpopular.

The Life Begins@40 site cost almost £50 for every recorded visitor – equivalent to the cost of a face-to-face consultations with a GP

It was launched to help deliver an SNP manifesto pledge to offer health checks to every Scot when they turn 40.

But an official evaluation of the service showed that users found that the online questionnaire, designed to help them l ead a healthier life, told them ‘very little, i f anything, that they did not already know’.

One participant described it as ‘tremendously patronising’, and added: ‘Can you imagine saying to someone: “So do you smoke any tobacco products? No, that’s great, by not smoking you are already protecting your health for the future”.’

Concern was also expressed after users were told they were overweight – with the words in capital letters and ‘emoticons’ at the end of sections where they admitted to unhealthy habits.

Analysis conducted by Ipsos MORI found that only 8 per cent of 40-year- olds invited to fill in the questionnaire logged onto the website, while 52 per cent of them did not complete the form.

Answers to questions lodged at Holyrood by Labour health spokesman Neil Findlay, showed the project cost £670,000. They also revealed that Health Secretary Alex Neil decided that the site should be axed in January 2013.

Mr Findlay said: ‘ The Life Begins@40 project was supposed to improve the health and wellbeing of people across Scotland yet we now find out it was nothing more than a very expensive and poorly used website. No wonder it was stopped.’

Dr Alan McDevitt, chairman of the British Medical Association’s Scottish GP committee said: ‘The Life Begins@40 programme was a political promise that was not based on any clinical evidence.

‘GPs did not welcome nor support this programme when it was launched as there is little evidence to suggest that general health checks would actually improve the health of patients.

‘It did not deliver value for money in an already stretched NHS.’

The number of users of the site recorded by the Scottish Government was 13,779. This equates to £48 per person.

But the Scottish Government said calculating the costs are misleading as the bulk of the costs were involved in the set-up of the site. A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: ‘An evaluation of the Life Begins@40 programme found it would provide greater value in conjunction with other sources of information on health and wellbeing.’

He added that the Scottish Government was now working with NHS 24 to develop a new webbased resource for working-age people.

He added: ‘This will create a single source, providing information and advice to aid recovery from illhealth and to promote health and wellbeing.’

An additional £50,000-£75,000 has been allocated by ministers for this scheme.