Heart attacks, along with strokes, kidney disease and dementia, are among the potentially life-threatening conditions that undiagnosed high blood pressure can lead to. High blood pressure (hypertension) doesn’t usually have any symptoms so having your blood pressure checked regularly is a simple way to reduce your risk of developing these conditions.
If you are over 40 and have not had a blood pressure check in the last six months you can visit one of more than 200 pharmacies across Hertfordshire and west Essex to get one carried out.
People who are Black or South Asian are more likely to be at risk from high blood pressure, so if this applies to you or your family members, please do come forward for a quick, free and painless check.
Alongside 200 pharmacies offering the vital checks, since October a number of dental practices and opticians across Hertfordshire and west Essex have also been offering free blood pressure checks for their patients.
This includes Broadwater Dental Practice, in Stevenage, where more than 250 patients have so far taken up the offer of having their blood pressure tested during a dental appointment. Dr Sonal Patel, Principal Dentist at the practice, said:
“When our patients come in for a check-up we have been asking them if they would also like to have a blood pressure check while they are here. Most of our patients are aged over 40 so that fits in very well with the group of people the ICB have been trying to encourage to get a check. And on the whole, when we have offered one to the patients they were interested in having it done and admit they may not have found the time to do it otherwise.
“I think being able to have a blood pressure check at the same time as having a dental check up, which we find people are pretty good at keeping up with, has been really appreciated by our patients and it is something they would like to see happening more.”
Dr Patel says offering blood pressure checks has been a positive experience for the practice, allowing dentists to get to know their patients a bit better, and in turn patients have been very supportive.
So far, more than 550 blood pressure checks have taken place in opticians and dentists, with 108 people referred for further help because their blood pressure readings were high.
Debbie Trueman, 52, from Watford is urging people to get checked after she suffered a life-changing brain haemorrhage caused by undiagnosed high blood pressure. She continues to live with the after-effects of her illness having not previously shown any signs of being unwell.
She says her family began to suspect something was wrong when she began to behave unusually.
“I am an eleven plus tutor and I had done a session with a pupil earlier that evening but didn’t remember they had been here. Earlier, during the session I had a bit of a panic attack because I couldn’t remember suddenly what I was meant to be doing.
“My son noticed something was wrong, he was 16 at the time. And then my ex-partner found me in the toilet downstairs and I couldn’t move my left side so they suspected a stroke,” Debbie says.
Debbie was taken to Watford Hospital and then rushed to a specialist unit in London – she had suffered a form of stroke and needed the blood drained from her brain. The operation was a success and Debbie was able to go home once she had recovered.
Debbie was prescribed medication to control her high blood pressure and she invested in her own monitor which means she is able to carry out checks at home.
“I have a spreadsheet and I take my blood pressure daily and fill it out and I am really, really strict about taking my medication every day. I would urge people to get their own blood pressure machine if they can but also to visit their pharmacist who will be able to carry out a check that could save your life.
“I was getting my medication at the pharmacy actually and I saw a poster in the window about blood pressure checks and there was also a gentleman stood outside and I asked him if he’d had a check and told him he should because of what had happened to me. I really hope he took my advice. I was so close to dying, my children were almost left without their mum and I just had no idea how ill I actually was because high blood pressure does not have any symptoms.”
Information about where to get a blood pressure check, how to understand what the numbers mean, plus advice on how to make healthy changes to your lifestyle can be found on the ICB’s website: hertsandwestessex.ics.nhs.uk/bp