New regulations, which limits potentially life changing NHS blood pressure checks in pharmacies, is a “retrograde step” that will hinder the drive to cut heart disease and stroke, the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) said today.
They called on NHS England to immediately to pause plans to impose a limit on NHS blood pressure tests in pharmacies, meaning patients will only be permitted to have a test every five years – due to come into force next month.
The NPA, which represents around 6,000 pharmacies across the UK, warned that the change could leave people with undiagnosed heart or cardiovascular problems and warned the change flies in the face of efforts to improve prevention in the health service.
It also called for a full impact assessment to be carried out before changes are implemented.
Henry Gregg, Chief Executive of the National Pharmacy Association said:
“Imposing a 5-year limit on pharmacy’s ability to check blood pressure will undermine the government’s ambition to promote health prevention and could leave health problems undiagnosed. It’s a clear retrograde step that flies in the face of efforts to prevent disease.
“If the NHS has evidence that blood pressure checks are being done unnecessarily frequently on some individuals, they need to take this up with the individual contractors rather than put in place arbitrary rules that undermine our shared goal of reducing the number of cases of undiagnosed hypertension.
“This is a sledge hammer to crack a nut.
“Pharmacies need the freedom to make public health interventions without constantly worrying about whether they will be reimbursed for their work. If some people are checked more frequently than every five years, that is a small price to pay. We need to focus on the real risk – which is people walking around not knowing that they are at an increased risk of an early heart attack or stroke.”
