Free blood pressure checks to flood communities in England

In a bid to drive up high blood pressure diagnoses to prevent severe medical issues the NHS have distributed more free checks across communities.

NHS England have placed free blood pressure checks in unlikely places across the country to help reduce the number of people suffering heart attacks or strokes. Checks will now be available in places such as barber shops, mosques, and pharmacies.

The national health organisation decided to implement these measures, which were announced today, as the number of people unknowingly living with major health issues is growing substantially.

Against this backdrop, people with high-blood pressure often live without symptoms until it is too late.

However, existing precautions have already helped to alert people with high blood pressure. In May 2023 high street pharmacies delivered 149,856 blood pressure checks to over-40s, which was up from 58,345 the year before.

In addition, new funding under the primary-care access recovery plan, will see a further 2.5 million blood-pressure checks in community pharmacies, estimated to prevent more than 1,350 heart attacks and strokes every year.

Chief pharmaceutical officer for England, David Webb, said: ‘The enormous expansion in the number of blood-pressure checks delivered over the last year is thanks to the hard work of community pharmacies, which have more than doubled the number of blood pressure checks delivered, and the innovation of local teams, going into the heart of communities, with mobile sites that can visit places like barber’s shops and dominoes clubs.

‘With the number of people living with major illnesses, including heart disease and other cardiovascular conditions, set to grow substantially over the coming years, it has never been more important to put in place preventative measures like easy to access blood-pressure checks that can pick up the early signs and risks.’

Image: Mufid Majnun

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