High blood pressure (hypertension) is a risk factor that can increase your chance of developing heart disease, stroke, or other serious conditions. Treatment includes changing various lifestyle risk factors such as diet, exercise, alcohol consumption and smoking, as well as starting medication that can lower your blood pressure.

Hypertension is not one of the long term conditions that we routinely write out to patients asking them to attend for review. Patients with hypertension on medication should attend for a review of their condition at least annually via the Practice’s birthday month medication review system.

A typical annual hypertension review with one of the Practice Nurses will last around 20 minutes, so make sure you tell the receptionist when you call to make your appointment, what type of appointment it is that you need.

If you take blood pressure readings at home you can record them on this downloadable form (Word | PDF), or enter them into this form on the internet. Once submitted these readings will be forwarded to your usual GP.

During your review, the Practice Nurse will take your blood pressure, possible two or three times to get the best reading. They will also discuss the various lifestyle factors that can contribute to high blood pressure and encourage weight loss, regular physical activity, a healthy diet and stopping smoking, as appropriate for each patient.

We would encourage all patients with hypertension to return 6 months after their birthday for a shorter 10 minute review of their blood pressure with one of the Practice Nursing team to check their bp hasn’t risen above recommended levels since their annual review.

For more information on high blood pressure and heart disease, you can check out the following websites:

NHS Inform

British Heart Foundation

Patient Info

We produced some advice on buying a home Blood pressure machine in 2020 which you can see here.