NHS Blood Pressure Monitoring & ABPM (Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring)

This is a simple recording of your blood pressure that requires you to wear a cuff on your arm and a small box on a belt around your waist. You will wear this home and return it the next day.

Your doctor may have requested that you have this simple non-invasive test in order to monitor your blood pressure over a 24-hour period.

• High blood pressure, also called hypertension, is a condition which can be controlled to reduce your risk of a heart attack, stroke or other cardiovascular disease.


• In the UK there are about five million adults (one in every nine) who have high blood pressure without even knowing it, since high blood pressure itself rarely causes symptoms.


• The British Heart Foundation estimates that high blood pressure causes over 50% of heart attacks and strokes.

We are offering free NHS blood pressure checks to people aged 40 and over with no appointment necessary. This involves around 10-15 minutes in the pharmacy consultation room with our pharmacist. Following this, you may be invited to take home a blood pressure monitor that measures your blood pressure as you go about your daily life. Depending on your blood pressure reading you may be referred to your GP. The pharmacist will guide you through any necessary steps depending on your blood pressure result.

It would be most helpful if you could wear clothing that has fairly wide or flexible sleeves so that the cuff worn underneath has room to inflate.

The blood pressure cuff will inflate approximately every half hour during the day and hourly at night. You should carry out your normal activities, but you will not be able to have a bath or a shower whilst wearing the equipment. We do not advise driving, other than to and from the appointment, as the BP monitor can be a distraction.

You may experience a tingling sensation in your arm when the cuff is inflating. This will resolve when the cuff deflates.

You will need to return the equipment to the pharmacy after 24 hours or as instructed at your appointment. The results will be downloaded onto a computer.

The results will be passed onto the doctor who requested the test. You are usually told the results at your next clinic appointment or a letter may be sent to your GP