Pharmacists test blood pressure across the UK
A testing point at London’s Waterloo Eurostar terminus |
Pharmacists across the UK played a leading role this week in a campaign to persuade people to have their blood pressure checked.
A pharmacist and technician from Moss Pharmacy spent a day at London’s
Eurostar terminal taking blood pressure readings of travellers and station
staff, carrying out risk assessments and then giving appropriate life
style and nutrition advice. The company’s health and pharmacy adviser
Chris Street said: “By lunchtime we had seen around 50 members
of the public from a wide range of ages from 17-year-olds to people over
70.
“We have advised a couple of people to have their blood pressure
rechecked by their GP because it was slightly high but at the same time
we reassured
them that there was probably nothing to worry about.”
Mr Street said a number of people were surprised that monitoring was
being done by pharmacists and not doctors or nurses. He said: “Somebody
even said they were glad to speak to me as a pharmacist rather than a
doctor because I was a real person.”
The event was one of thousands of free blood pressure checks offered
by health professionals, including pharmacists from Asda, UniChem, Moss,
Lloydspharmacy and Vantage, to mark National Blood Pressure Testing from
September 13 to 19. The week was organised jointly by the Department
of Health and the Blood Pressure
Association.
A survey commissioned by the BPA to launch the campaign showed that people
were three times more likely to know their car mileage than their own
blood pressure. The MORI poll of 1,010 adults aged over 16 revealed that
71 per cent of them who were car owners knew their vehicle mileage while
only 28 per cent knew their blood pressure. |
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