The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has issued a sharp warning over NHS England's decision to restrict access to potentially life-saving blood pressure checks in community pharmacies.
On 6 Aug, NHS updated NHS Community Pharmacy Hypertension Case-Finding Service (HCFS) specification (commonly known as the NHS Blood Pressure Check Service).
Under the revised rules, NHS England introduced new restrictions limiting patients to only one clinic blood pressure check every five years (for adults aged 40 and over without a prior diagnosis of hypertension), alongside excluding patients already being treated for hypertension from receiving clinic checks.
The new regulations are a “retrograde step” that will hinder the drive to cut heart disease and stroke, the NPA said today.
NPA called on NHS England to immediately 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.
They also 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.”
