A modern IT system for NHS would help women with blood pressure problems

Lewis Macdonald MSP, as chairman of the Health and Sports Committee at Holyrood, has rightly highlighted the issue of the NHS in Scotland lacking a modern information technology (IT) system to improve the access and management of medicines.

Without the database such a system would provide, it becomes impossible for either prescribing doctors or pharmacists to gain the information they need on the use and efficacy of all the drugs available and prescribed for a range of conditions.

For example, such an IT system would be particularly useful for the treatment of blood pressure problems, for which there are well in excess of a hundred different drugs now on the market, some with significant side effects. It is vital to reduce the incidence of high blood pressure in all people to avoid the complications of stroke and heart problems. Once identified, blood pressure issues need lifelong monitoring and drug treatment.

In Scotland, the lack of identification and appropriate treatment of women with blood pressure and heart disease is particularly seen in the unacceptably high death rates, averaging 2,600 per annum. This is equivalent to having a Covid pandemic every year.

It is well recognised that women have a different biology from men and respond differently to different drugs.

If there was a modern effective IT system in place in NHS Scotland to be interrogated by pharmacists and prescribing doctors, it could greatly enhance the information available.

This would allow the drugs provided to be tailored to each woman, so they would be well tolerated, avoiding side effects, thus improving health outcomes and lowering the current death rate.

The question for Lewis Macdonald and his Health Committee must be, can they now expedite a modern IT system for the NHS in Scotland?

For many it cannot come soon enough.

ELIZABETH MARSHALL Western Harbour Midway

Edinburgh