Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent steps the NHS has taken to tackle trends in blood pressure related complaints among people in their 50s.

In 2016, NHS RightCare published its Cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention optimal value pathway, which outlines best practice care pathways to help improve CVD prevention, including opportunities to better detect, diagnose and control cases of high blood pressure. The pathway can be viewed here:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/rightcare/intel/cfv/cvd-pathway/

NHS England’s National Clinical Director for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention launched a new resource for clinical commissioning groups and general practitioners (GPs) ‘Blood Pressure – How Can We Do Better?’ It was developed by GPs, nurses and pharmacists working with partners including NHS England, Public Health England, the British Heart Foundation, the Stroke Association and the Royal College of General Practitioners. It can be accessed at:

https://www.bhf.org.uk/bp-how-can-we-do-better

NHS England is a member of the Blood Pressure System Leadership Board, established by Public Health England, to help drive improvements in the prevention, detection and management of high blood pressure.

The NHS Health Check is a national programme that aims to prevent heart disease, stroke, diabetes and kidney disease, and raise awareness of dementia both across the population and within high risk and vulnerable groups. Between April 2013 and September 2016, 4.9 million people have benefitted from a blood pressure check as part of their NHS Health Check. Evaluation of the programme demonstrated that one case of hypertension is diagnosed in every 27 people receiving a check.