THE role community pharmacies can play in the diagnosis and management of hypertension by taking blood pressure (BP) readings should be cautiously interpreted, according to research published in the Journal of Hypertension.
The authors concluded that more studies were warranted with a standard to be established around pharmacy BP monitoring levels that would justify referral and levels that would simply recommend home monitoring prior to GP referral in order to minimise GP overload.
Many studies have demonstrated that "routine BP check-ups in pharmacies could save both general practitioner time and healthcare costs," researchers said, highlighting that in the UK almost 90% of the population live within a 20-min walk from a pharmacy and more than 20 million people visit a pharmacy in Europe every day without an appointment necessary to have a BP check.
This study reviewed "all existing literature comparing BP readings taken in community pharmacies with ABPM [ambulatory BP monitoring], HBPM [home BP monitoring] and general practitioner clinic readings.
See the study: journals.lww.com.
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