NHS: A Pint of Milk and a Blood Pressure Check, Please.

Shoppers could soon have their blood pressure and cholesterol checked in between buying their daily bread and potatoes in an effort to prevent more than 25,000 heart attacks and strokes.

A radical NHS plan aims to bring health checks to the High Street and the scheme for bringing regular health checks to vulnerable people may then develop into a feature at football grounds and sporting venues, according to NHS England and Public Health England (PHE).

The scheme will use fire-fighters, teachers, office workers and shop assistants who would be trained to carry out tests such as blood pressure and cholestorol checks to try to identify the thousands of people who are at risk of the major killers.

The checks are being introduced to spot the early signs of conditions such as dementia, diabetes, heart disease and stroke, which collectively cost the NHS tens of billions of pounds in resources each year.

NHS England says it believes there are an estimated 5.5m people in Britain with undiagnosed high blood pressure, one of the critical early warning signs of the onset of coronary heart disease and strokes.

The NHS believes that if everyone entitled to the checks – which are normally offered at least every five years up to the age of 74 – received them more than 9,000 heart attacks and 14,000 strokes could be prevented over the next three years.

Professor Duncan Selbie, PHE chief executive, said health officials wanted to work with major retailers to bring the checks to the High Street. “High blood pressure is the invisible killer”, he said. “We want people to be as familiar with their blood pressure numbers as they are with their credit card PIN or their height. We want to get people talking about their blood pressure at supermarkets like Asda and Tesco, making it normal to have your number on your till receipts. You could do it at the till, with technology it’s so easy.”

Workplaces would also be encouraged to introduce checks, he said, and employers were likely to help because they realise that healthier workers are more productive.

Dr Matt Kearney, the NHS national clinical director for cardiovascular disease prevention, said the scheme was already underway. “Some parts of the country have already started to use non-traditional ways – and places – to carry out simple health checks with encouraging results but it is up to clinicians and others to decide where and how this is done in their area.”

However, Joyce Robins of the patients’ rights campaign group Patient Concern expressed scepticism. “Firefighters should stick to fighting fires and leave the routine medical checks to doctors and nurses. People won’t want firemen quizzing them on their health and taking their blood pressure while extinguishing a fire or testing their smoke alarm.”

And the Royal College of GPs said “blanket health checks” could divert resources from those in most need, and lead to over-diagnosis.

Simon Gillespie, chief executive at the British Heart Foundation (BHF) defended the idea of making innovative efforts to reach people who are not taking themselves into clinics for check-ups. “Early detection and management of medical risk factors such as high blood pressure, atrial fibrillation and high cholesterol will ensure patients get the right treatments in sufficient time to prevent heart attacks and strokes.”

He said Heart Foundation had funded several care programmes which found that joined-up local services were cost effective and benefited patients. “It is good news that the NHS recognises this and wants a more integrated approach for patient care. This will help to reduce the current variations in care across the country, ultimately preventing heart attacks & strokes, and improving patient outcomes.”

 

by Bob Graham

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