High blood is one of the biggest contributors to stroke and heart attack. Now, a new initiative has been launched to help people monitor their blood pressure more closely.
Around seven-and-a-half million people in the UK live with heart and circulatory diseases and with a growing ageing population, the numbers are set to rise still further.
A new initiative has been launched to help people monitor their blood pressure more closely. As part of a nationwide campaign, all NHS High Street pharmacies in South Somerset will offer free blood pressure checks to people aged 40 and above, beginning from October.
The NHS believes that over the next five years, the tests will prevent 3,700 strokes, 2,500 heart attacks and 2,000 lives. Predictions also show that if two-and-a-half million people have their blood pressure checked at an NHS pharmacy, an additional quarter of a million people would receive lifesaving treatment for hypertension.
The initiative is the latest step to find thousands more people living with cardiovascular disease and prevent 150,000 heart attacks, strokes cases every year. Pharmacists will case-find and offer blood pressure tests to people aged 40 and over who show symptoms and provide clinical and lifestyle advice or referral, to speed up access to care.
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