NHS England has made a new move in its bid to provide more preventative healthcare as it expands the provision of blood pressure checks in places like barbershops, mosques and community clubs.
The rollout is part of the wider drive to tackle strokes and heart attacks, with the health service estimating that the checks delivered by high-street pharmacies could prevent more than 1,300 heart attacks this year alone.
New figures suggest that such pharmacies provided the over 40s with almost 150,000 blood pressure checks in May this year – significantly higher than the circa 58,000 that were delivered in the same month last year.
Some of the schemes deployed include:
- A mobile blood pressure service in Barnsley which visits everything from barbershops to supermarkets
- GPs in Warrington offering patients an app to help them better track their blood pressure
- NHS teams in Lambeth giving people at a dominoes club in Brixton blood pressure checks
- A free community health check day at a mosque in Birmingham, run by the local primary care network
The health service cites the recent Health Foundation analysis that estimated 2.5 million more people will be living with major illness in England by 2040, as one of the key drivers as to why the switch to preventative healthcare is so important.
Funding from the primary care recovery plan will see an extra 2.5 million blood pressure checks delivered on the high-street.
England’s chief pharmaceutical officer, David Webb, said that “it has never been more important” to put preventative measures like blood pressure checks in place – especially against the backdrop of rising major illness.
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