May Measurement Month

NPA members who offer blood pressure checks are being encouraged to get behind May Measurement Month. The campaign seeks to raise global awareness of hypertension and create the evidence base to inform and influence policy makers.

Resources are available from the International Society of Hypertension (ISH), which is organising the campaign, and the NPA.

Stephen Fishwick, head of NPA communications, said: “Checking patients’ blood pressure is a relatively simple intervention that can save lives.

The NPA believes that community pharmacy should play a far greater role in screening and ultimately managing hypertension. Complications from high blood pressure cost the NHS £2bn a year and make up 12% of all GP appointments but we want to change that. Many of our members already offer blood pressure checks and the NPA is working hard to enable community pharmacy to do more in this area.”

Last year during May Measurement Month, 1.2m people in 100 countries were checked as part of the initiative.

Digital campaign resources and a toolkit, which includes the ISH’s required methodology, are available to download at www.maymeasure.com

The NPA will supply a limited number of May Measurement Month t-shirts for participating pharmacy teams who should contact c.fay@npa.co.uk for details.