Patient Information on Blood Pressure Management at Mowbray Square Medical Centre
We are working hard to make sure we manage our patient’s blood pressure as well as possible. Part of this work is to try to identify patients who have high blood pressure but are not aware of this. We also contact all patients known to have high blood pressure for an annual review in their birthday month.
We may contact you at other times if you are overdue a blood pressure check. Making sure we control blood pressure is one of the best ways to reduce your risk of having a heart attack or a stroke. You might have already received a text message from us asking you to come and get your blood pressure checked. We wanted to explain a bit more about why this is, and what happens when you have given us your blood pressure readings.
What is High Blood Pressure?
High blood pressure, or hypertension, rarely has noticeable symptoms. But if untreated, it increases your risk of developing serious health problems such as heart attacks and strokes.
High blood pressure is one of the most common conditions in this country – more than one in four adults in the UK have the condition. Over 600,000 people living in West Yorkshire and Harrogate are affected by high blood pressure.
The following website explains much more about blood pressure, what your readings mean, and what your can do to reduce it:
Who will check my blood pressure at the surgery?
You may have your blood pressure checked when you have an appointment at the surgery. This could be done by a doctor, a nurse, a health care assistant, or a one of our Clinical Pharmacists.
Blood Pressure Pod
You can also check your own blood pressure using the pod in the ground floor reception of Mowbray Square. The results are accessed electronically by our Clinical AdminTeam, who will review them, following our BP pathway. If you have a very high or low reading, you will be asked to take your print out to the Patient Services team in your surgery.
The Blood Pressure Pod should not usually be used by patient’s known to have Hypertension. This is because it is much more accurate for this group of patients to monitor home blood pressure instead.
Sometimes we will ask you to drop in to use the pod. We may send a text message about this. There are several reasons we might ask you to do this, such as:
- You have not had a blood pressure reading for a long time
- As part of the review for some of your medication (such as the combined contraceptive pill)
Home Blood Pressure Readings
You may also be asked to provide us with home blood pressure readings. There are several situations when we might request this:
- If your blood pressure reading taken by a member of our team in the surgery is high, we will usually ask you to monitor it at home for a week, as it might be lower there.
- Home readings give us a more accurate understanding of what your blood pressure is usually like, and we usually use these figures to make treatment decisions.
- If you are on medication for high blood pressure, we will ask you to do some home readings when you are due your annual review.
- If your blood pressure medication has recently been adjusted, we usually ask you to repeat your readings at home a few weeks later
How to Submit Home Blood Pressure readings
- When we invite you to do home blood pressure readings, we will also send you a blood pressure monitoring questionnaire by text message. This requires you to send back readings every morning and evening for 7 days. The readings will then be reviewed following the pathway at MSMC.
- You can also post your readings on paper to us. Please make sure your name and date of birth is included.
Home Blood Pressure Monitors
All of the Mowbray Square practices have blood pressure monitors that we can lend out for you to monitor your blood pressure at home. The following website explains in detail how to record your BP at home and how to buy a monitor, if you want to purchase one:
Who reviews blood pressure readings received by the surgery?
We have a detailed protocol followed by our clinical admin team, used to review blood pressure reading submitted by patients. You will be notified when your blood pressure has been reviewed, and whether any further action is necessary. If your treatment needs changing, we will invite you to book a telephone call with one of our clinical the pharmacists.
We have an excellent team of clinical pharmacists at Mowbray Square, who are highly skilled in blood pressure management. If you need treatment for high blood pressure, they will follow our local guidelines on the best way to treat your blood pressure. They work closely with GPs and nurses and will discuss any complex cases.