News Release

Pharmacists called to help reach adults in the dark about the dangers of high blood pressure

9 July 2008

The Blood Pressure Association (BPA) is inviting pharmacists to take part in Know your Numbers! Week 2008 to help raise awareness of the blood pressure ‘ticking time bomb’.

Know your Numbers! Week (8 -14 September) is the nation’s biggest blood pressure event which provides free blood pressure checks at thousands of ‘Pressure Stations’ run by healthcare professionals nationwide.

The BPA won an award at The Charity Awards 2008 for the campaign, which aims to encourage people to take control of their health and know their blood pressure numbers in the same way they know their height and weight.

Know your Numbers! Week gives pharmacists, qualified to measure blood pressure as part of their role, the opportunity to highlight an existing service, meet professional goals, create more awareness about high blood pressure and attract new customers. Pharmacists who register to take part receive a BPA resource pack that includes testing guidelines, leaflets, posters and record cards.

The BPA is pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals, to run Pressure Stations to help reach some of the 5.3 million adults in the UK who do not know they have high blood pressure. Undetected and uncontrolled high blood pressure is the most common cause of strokes, heart attacks and heart disease.

During Know your Numbers! Week 2007, more than 253,000 adults had their blood pressure tested at 2,755 BPA Pressure Stations, of which 2198 were run by pharmacists. At least 40 per cent of people tested during the Week were found to have high blood pressure readings.

Raj Patel, a pharmacist at Mount Elgon Pharmacy, Wimbledon Chase, who took part last year, said: "Know your Numbers! Week was a very worthwhile campaign for us to take part in and we carried out significantly more blood pressure tests during the Week. The event provided us with the opportunity, materials and publicity to promote an existing service, talk to customers about high blood pressure and attract new customers. I will be taking part in the campaign once again."

Mark Hooley, BPA Projects and Marketing Officer who organises the event, explains: "Undiagnosed high blood pressure is a ticking time bomb and a potentially life threatening condition. But with the help of health professionals during Know your Numbers! Week, we can identify some of the UK adult population who are unaware that they have high blood pressure and potentially save lives.

"We’d really like to encourage even more pharmacies to set up Pressure Stations as they have the great potential to reach huge numbers of people who don’t normally have their blood pressure checked by their GP. Know your Numbers! Week helps people to understand that as well as getting their prescriptions from pharmacists, they can also get help and advice on how to manage high blood pressure."

Registration for Know your Numbers! Week 2008 closes soon, so visit the BPA’s website www.bpassoc.org.uk/kyn or call Mark Hooley on 020 8772 4992 to sign up today.

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

For further information please contact:
Michelle Gederon, BPA Press & PR Officer, 020 8772 4993

• The Blood Pressure Association, the UK’s blood pressure charity, provides information and support to people with high blood pressure and raises awareness about prevention of the condition. For more details visit www.bpassoc.org.uk or call 020 8772 4994.