Resistant Hypertension

Baroness Winterton of Doncaster Excerpts

Wednesday 24th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

That clearly matters immensely. We have invested in community pharmacy services, which have brought this into the heart of communities and made it easier and more attractive for people to have their blood pressure checked. As of February, we have some 10,000 community pharmacies delivering. We are also developing the online NHS health check and the modern service framework. Information from pharmacies should be going direct to GPs, but I am heartened, as we move towards the health Bill, by the advent of the single patient record.

[Baroness Winterton of Doncaster (Lab)]

My Lords, following on from the extraordinary explanation by the noble Lord, Lord Patel, of the background and the need for specialist centres, would a pilot project undertaken by NHS research help, in case there are any delays in assessing the information before us? This is something that the NHS should do more often—specific pilot projects to see how something works in practice.

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

As my noble friend says, we have had great success, and it has really helped us to have pilot projects in other areas such as mental health services. I ask my noble friend warmly to anticipate the modern service framework, because that will set out how we are to go forward in this regard.