Public Health England
Today (18 January 2016), the National Cardiovascular Intelligence Network (NCIN), in partnership with the Public Health England (PHE) blood pressure team, has launched a series of hypertension (high blood pressure) profiles for each clinical commissioning group (CCG) and lower tier local authority.
The hypertension profiles show each local authority how well it is doing in detecting and treating high blood pressure by comparing its performance with that of similar authorities and with the rest of England.
The PDF resources point to PHEs Tackling high blood pressure from evidence to action plan with conclusions and suggestions on how to tackle and prevent high blood pressure. It also highlights approaches that can be taken to improve performance and outcomes for each local population.
High blood pressure is one of the leading risk factors for premature death and disability, and can lead to stroke, heart attack, heart failure, chronic kidney disease and dementia. Conditions caused by high blood pressure cost the NHS over 2 billion every year. By reducing the blood pressure of the nation as a whole, 850 million of NHS and social care spend could be avoided over 10 years.
We know from international comparison that there is significant scope for improvement: in Canada, for example, 7 out of every 10 adults with high blood pressure are both diagnosed and managed to recommended levels whereas in England we only achieve this in 4 out of 10.
Lorraine Oldridge, Director of NCIN, PHE, said:
Were proud to be launching these profiles in order to help lower the prevalence of high blood pressure which still remains a public health problem across all regions in England. By providing hard data local authorities can see how they compare to nearby regions and set new targets to reduce their levels of hypertension amongst their population.
Jamie Waterall, Chair of the Blood Pressure System Leadership Board, PHE, said:
Putting tailored interventions in place is key to ensure as many cases of high blood pressure as possible are diagnosed and monitored, and this is something were increasingly seeing from local authorities.
Improving take-up of the NHS Health Check, a systematic testing and risk assessment programme for 40 to 74 year olds, offers a major route for increasing the detection of undiagnosed hypertension.
The regional hypertension profiles are available to to view or download.