What is BP@Home?
BP@Home is a scheme where you use a blood pressure monitor in the comfort of your own home to monitor your blood pressure and feedback the results to your GP surgery.
A blood pressure test checks if your blood pressure is healthy, or if it’s high or low. Blood pressure is the term used to describe the strength with which your blood pushes on the sides of your arteries as it’s pumped around your body. The medical term for high blood pressure is ‘hypertension’, which means your blood pressure is too high and your heart is working harder when pumping blood around your body.
Checking your blood pressure regularly and sharing the results with your GP surgery can help your GP to understand your blood pressure. Your GP can then offer you advice and support to avoid serious problems, such as heart attacks, strokes and other health conditions.
If you have been chosen to check your blood pressure
Your GP surgery or a clinical staff member has identified you as someone they would like to monitor their blood pressure at home. This may be because you:
• previously had a high blood pressure reading
• may have a health condition that puts you at risk of high blood pressure
• may have already been diagnosed with hypertension.
What happens next?
After you submit your blood pressure readings to your GP, the clinical staff will enter these onto your medical records to help them keep track of your health. If no further monitoring or testing is needed you may not hear from your GP, however if they would like to follow up with you, they will contact you to make an appointment.
In this appointment, you may discuss your next steps to improving your blood pressure. This could include a referral for support, such as weight management services, stop smoking support and other relevant lifestyle programmes. Your clinical team may recommend that medication is needed to support your blood pressure.
