The search is on for the county’s missing thousands at risk
A campaign has been launched to identify those living with undiagnosed high blood pressure.
It is estimated that up to 4.2 million people in England including 29,000 people over the age of 18 in Sussex, live with undiagnosed high blood pressure, putting them at risk of heart attacks, strokes, kidney disease and vascular dementia.
The Get Your Blood Pressure Checked campaign, supported by the British Heart Foundation, Stroke Association, Heart Research UK, Blood Pressure UK, May Measurement Month, British Society for Heart Failure and others, is urging those aged 40 years and over to get a free blood pressure test at a participating pharmacy.
NHS Sussex are urging local people to get check their blood pressure. Getting checked is quick and painless and if readings are high, people can be promptly referred to their doctor for treatment and support to bring it under control.
Local community pharmacies that are signed up to the NHS Blood Pressure Check Service are offering free checks to adults aged over 40 with no history of high blood pressure and those aged under 30-39 with a family history of high blood pressure.
Additionally, local health and wellbeing services offer free, tailored support for a longer, healthier and happier life – including motivational support and techniques to help people make lifestyle improvements that they would like to make.
NHS Sussex is committed to helping people stay well for longer by doing more to support them to look after their own health and wellbeing.
One of the ways people can do this is by getting a blood pressure check. NHS Sussex hope to tackle health inequalities by services working together and by harnessing the potential of digital technology. NHS Sussex and Community Pharmacy Surrey and Sussex have developed a new way of working between pharmacies and GP practices to work together to further improve the care available for local people.
The Sussex Accurx pathway uses the Community Pharmacy Hypertensive Case Finding Advanced Service and Accurx, a digital platform which can send bespoke secure text messages with links to local participating pharmacies with maps.