Are general health checkups in the UK common?

I’d been talking to a friend who had moved to the UK and she was saying that it’s common for people in her country to just go for general health checkups at their doctors once or twice a year just to make sure everything’s all good with just general health like blood pressure etc. They have to pay but it’s just normal

However noone i know who lives in the UK does this. In fact I feel like even though it’s probably free on the NHS it’s more common for people to try and avoid the doctors and wait out to see if symptoms of something go away, never mind going for general health checks when there’s no immediate signs of something wrong.

Is this common in other areas of the UK ?