The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7234 p171
1 February 2003

Society summary

Society publishes expanded practice guidance on blood pressure monitoring

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has produced a revised and greatly expanded document giving practice guidance on blood pressure monitoring.

The Society first published guidance on the measurement of blood pressure in 1979. The last substantial revision of this guidance was in 1995. The new document provides much more detailed advice than before, supplemented by background information and details of useful resources. After an introduction and a summary of Government policy on the prevention of coronary heart disease, the document's first major section gives guidance on setting up a blood pressure monitoring service. It includes advice on funding the service, on clinical governance issues (record-keeping, evaluation and confidentiality), on the choice of equipment, on premises, on the training of relevant staff, on liability and on marketing the service to those patients most in need of it.

The next section, on running the service, begins by warning pharmacists to be careful of making any diagnostic decisions, since it is the patient's general practitioner who has the clinical responsibility for the diagnosis of hypertension and its subsequent treatment. This section goes on to give guidance on communicating with the patient, on the procedure for measuring blood pressure and on how to handle the results and when to refer to the patient's own doctor.

The following two sections provide information on the epidemiology of hypertension and on a number of related issues. The document then summarises the hypertension management recommendations of the National Service Framework for Coronary Heart Disease, the British Hypertension Society and the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network. It also points out that guidance reflecting local practice may also be available from National Health Service trusts.

Appendices give contact details for a range of relevant organisations and suppliers and a list of useful resources, including distance learning modules and web-based information sources. Also provided are a sample patient information fact sheet, a sample patient evaluation form and a sample referral form.

The revised guidance can be downloaded as a 26-page PDF file from the practice section of the Society's website. Pharmacists without access to the internet can obtain copies of the revised guidance from Liz Griffiths, Practice Division, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, 1 Lambeth High Street, London SE1 7JN (tel 020 7572 2408; e-mail lgriffiths@rpsgb.org.uk).

The guidance on blood pressure monitoring is one of a number of guidance documents currently being revised by the Society's practice division. It is to be followed shortly by new guidance on cholesterol testing, on the testing of body fluids and on dealing with clinical trials. Revised guidance has recently been published on pharmacy computer systems, on information protection and security and on working with the pharmaceutical Industry (PJ, 11 January, p65, and 25 January, p135).