Dear Patient,
How to update your blood pressure readings for your medical record:
Parkbury House requests people who need to monitor their blood pressure buy a BP machine and monitor it themselves at home. Home BP readings are more reliable, and we no longer have a BP machine in reception for patient use.
If you do not have a diagnosis of raised blood pressure (and are not on treatment for raised blood pressure):
We ask all our patients over the age of 45, and those on specific medication (for example HRT, combined contraceptive pill, mirabegron) to give us an annual blood pressure reading. This is to ensure that we are able to prevent disease by early intervention if your blood pressure does become raised. High blood pressure poses an important health risk. Please check two readings at home and submit the lower of the two in the box below. The morning is usually the best time for most people to check their blood pressure.
If you do have a diagnosis of raised blood pressure (whether or not you are on treatment for this):
When requested by your doctor or nurse (or at least once a year) please check your blood pressure twice a day for 5 days. Each time you check it, please do 2 readings 2 minutes apart and record the lowest one. Please then calculate the average systolic and diastolic readings (the top and bottom numbers of the reading) of these 10 measurements taken over 5 days before submitting them. Please submit your average blood pressure reading in the box below.
Ideally, your average blood pressure reading should be less than 140/90. If it is above this reading, we will offer you a telephone appointment to discuss this. Note : if you are aged 80 years or above, the BP target is 150/90.
Please ignore this message if you already have updated us about your blood pressure reading with the last 3 weeks.
