Home blood pressure monitors should be made available on prescription to anyone who has been diagnosed with high blood pressure to help save the maximum number of lives from strokes and heart disease as well as reducing the number of routine GP visits, according to the charity Blood Pressure UK.
Whilst the NHS already provides glucose monitors on prescription to patients living with diabetes, a similar approach (i.e. offering home blood pressure monitors on prescription) should be taken by the government for those most at risk of high blood pressure, the charity said.
By getting the nation’s blood pressure under control via home monitoring and medication – especially at a time when access to overwhelmed GPs and other health care professionals is restricted during the COVID-19 pandemic – many thousands of lives could be saved from a stroke or heart disease, Blood Pressure UK said.
It made its call to mark "Know Your Numbers!" Week (7-13 September 2020), the UK’s biggest blood pressure testing event, raising awareness of high blood pressure and the problems it causes.
Blood Pressure UK also quoted new nationally representative survey findings showing that while 32 per cent of those surveyed (n=2022) took up exercise and 29 per cent started eating better following lockdown, blood pressure was not a concern for 66 per cent of respondents – with 60 per cent citing it is because they do not have a problem with it.
Of the 42 per cent of respondents who had high blood pressure, 48 per cent preferred not to say if it was under control.
Of the third (35%) of those who own a blood pressure monitor, only 17 per cent use it once a month.
Of those that do not own a home blood pressure monitor, 42 per cent said they would rather have a health care professional check it, despite home monitoring being recommended by NICE.
This article originally appeared on Univadis, part of the Medscape Professional Network.
