Hypertension: Medical Equipment
(asked on 15th October 2020) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to GPs requiring patients to take blood pressure readings at home and send them to the surgery, what support is available to people with the cost of purchasing a blood pressure monitor; and how a patient can ensure that the monitor is calibrated to NHS standards at no extra cost.
The third phase of the National Health Service’s response to COVID-19, effective from the 1 August, focused on accelerating the return to near-normal levels of non-COVID-19 health services, which included the ask to accelerate preventative programmes and specifically the better targeting of long-term condition prevention and management programmes. NHS England’s letter regarding the third phase is available at the following link:
Hypertension monitoring and management is a priority for the NHS and we are developing safe systems to manage this making use of digital technology where appropriate. It is acknowledged that home blood pressure (BP) monitoring is not a preferred or possible option for all patients and there is no requirement on patients to pursue this option as primary care are continuing to offer this service where appropriate at practices. When a validated BP monitor is purchased it is calibrated to the required standard.