50% People Don’t Know About Pharmacy Blood Pressure Services

A year after the NHS introduced a case-finding service for people with hypertension, it was discovered that community pharmacies had checked almost 115,500 people’s blood pressure.

Although this sounds positive, less than 50% of people in an NPA-commissioned poll with over 1,000 respondents thought that a lot of pharmacies provide both private and NHS blood pressure services.

According to the report, there is “mixed” public knowledge of the services that pharmacists provide.

Although the industry had been mandated to provide these services from September 2015, now over 6 years ago, less than 70% are aware that pharmacies give flu vaccinations.

Furthermore, just 56% of respondents thought that they engage in advisory discussions for people who are given new medications for chronic illnesses.
The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee states that the NMS (New Medication Service), began officially as an advanced service over a decade ago, in October 2011.

Antidepressants are also anticipated to be added to the NMS starting in April 2023.

In regard to the path to get GP test and treatment requests, 51% of respondents “believed it to be true that GPs can formally refer patients for same-day clinical advice from their local pharmacist about minor ailments.”

Stephen Fishwick, head of communications for NPA, expressed that “the results of this survey show that there is still some way to go in terms of raising the public’s awareness of the clinical services now available in pharmacies.

“During Ask Your Pharmacist Week, we’ll focus on specific NHS services, like the NMS, rather than a more general message about pharmacy advice”.

© Copyright 2010-2021 Zenopa LTD. All Rights Reserved.