NHS blood pressure checks now available at your local pharmacy!

Things have been changing at your local pharmacy, including the introduction of a range of new NHS services.

Read on, to make sure you are not missing out on free-of-charge health care available conveniently and close to home in your local pharmacy.

For example, there is the NHS Community Pharmacy Blood Pressure Check Service. This service identifies people over the age of 40 who have previously not been diagnosed with hypertension (high blood pressure) and refers those with suspected hypertension for appropriate management within the NHS. Your pharmacy team will also provide healthy living advice.

Hypertension is one of the biggest risk factors for heart failure, stroke, chronic kidney disease, dementia and premature death. There are millions of people in the UK who are unaware they have the condition and are at risk of developing serious health problems. The good news is it is possible to monitor and treat, with diet and exercise and prescription medicines.

Ask your pharmacist about whether you are eligible for the blood pressure check service.

Other pharmacy services include the recently expanded NHS New Medicine Service. If you have any of a list of long-term conditions, you can get extra advice from your pharmacy team when you start taking a new drug to manage the condition and its symptoms. New medication can be quite confusing so the pharmacist will offer support over several weeks to check you’re taking it correctly and to discuss any side-effects. You may be referred back to your GP if there’s an issue requiring a change to the prescription.

The NHS Discharge Medicines Service aims to make sure that patients, when they leave hospital, understand their new medication and how to use it, and to better communicate changes to the medication with the GP and pharmacist. It includes a confidential discussion with the community pharmacist about the medication to ensure they are clear about how the drugs should be taken and used.

Community pharmacies are also a great place for patients to receive advice and support on stopping smoking. In the case of someone who has had a spell in hospital, the hospital can refer patients to a community pharmacy to continue the stop smoking process that they started in hospital. Pharmacies also offer other advice on healthy lifestyles, such as losing weight.

Pharmacy teams work with other healthcare professionals, such as doctors and nurses, to give you the best possible care as part of the local healthcare team. The NHS has a backlog of care to contend with following the pandemic. So it’s good to know that there are 14,000 pharmacies across the UK which can help take the pressure off GPs and hospitals.

Please visit your local pharmacy for clinical advice and prompt treatment for common illnesses like eye infections, earaches and itchy skin.

You can also be vaccinated against flu (check if you are eligible for the NHS programme) and, in some pharmacies, get Covid jabs and boosters too.

Remember, for NHS services, convenient access to medicines, support for healthy living and prompt clinical advice, Ask Your Pharmacist!

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