To think we shouldn’t have to buy our own blood pressure machines

[TangoTarantella]

Had a text from the GP surgery this morning to say that to re-authorise my HRT prescription I need to provide daily blood pressure readings at 9am and 6pm for 4 consecutive days. I rang the surgery and asked how I was supposed to do this and they said I had to buy a blood pressure machine (as if it was the most normal thing in the world). I was gobsmacked. Am I unreasonable to think I shouldn’t have to pay for medical equipment that I don’t want? Has anyone else had this?

We had to buy one as several family members need to submit monthly readings when requesting repeat prescriptions. The £20 or so saves us time - and the practice nurse or pharmacist leaving them free to help other patients - and I don’t have to traipse to the surgery every time either.

Our gp surgery has one in the waiting room, but we've also got our own.

Personally I think its easier to have your own. My gp is around a 4 mile round trip so much easier to have one at home.

Also its best to take the readings when more relaxed. Get more accurate results.

Its not just women on hrt asked to provide readings, DH has been asked to as well , as has my young adult dc who has a health issue that needs monitoring.

I just don't see why 8 is needed for an HRT repeat prescription.
Presumably that's because you're not a GP?

Sure - but if more frequent readings are required, suggesting you do it annually isn’t really an option. My husband takes his blood pressure himself at home because he’s needs to do it more frequently and honestly who has time to attend that many apts at the doctors anyway! If you want an apt annually to discuss symptoms make one and you get to attend for free. If you feel rushed and that you don’t get chance to explore request a double apt if it’s very complex. I fully agree with you that it’s very unfair to squeeze apts into ten mins and it often feels rushed, but currently that’s the system doctors are working under. Ten pounds is so cheap in the grand scheme of free at point of access healthcare.

This is unbelievable. It's surely protocol for doctors to check their patients when they put them on new drugs or change prescription. They would be even more negligent if they didn't. The fact that OP has had no BP problems in the past might not be relevant.

I have had a BP monitor for ages, they are dead easy to use. A nurse at our own surgery discovered that the public machine they had was very inaccurate, so having your own readings may well be much the best option.

Buy the damn thing and put it on Facebook local page if you must.

Agree - often people buy machines and use the wrong size cuff , this makes reading in accurate. My local pharmacy also used he wrong size cuff on me, it was so painful , it made the reading wrong.
The most accurate way is with a manual spyg and stethoscope but nurses now days lack basis skills . The NHS and whole country is in a terrible state. We have not progressed but gone backwards.

The NHS don’t always want equipment back! My DP’s still have a walker, that my DF offered to return but they didn’t want. Plus a frame that went around the toilet. Refused return.
My DM bought her own BP machine which I borrow when needed. Because both of us (DH) now we are over 50 have had to do the week test.

@TangoTarantella it’s because BP is affected by oestrogen levels, and you are taking that along with other hormones, so your BP needs checking at certain intervals. Mine is also checked every 6-12 months for that reason. My DD has to have hers checked for her ADHD meds every month, so I am just grateful I don’t have that palaver.

https://www.bloodpressureuk.org/news/news/blood-pressure-the-menopause-and-hrt-.html

Our surgery lends BP machines out. You have to pay a £10 deposit which is returned when the machine is handed back.

The NHS should not have to buy your equipment - you find somewhere to have it done for free, some pharmacists or GPs have them in their waiting rooms or you spend 20 quid!! If the NHS had to buy every bit of kit anyone needed from thermometers to blood pressure machines they would be providing even less of a service than they are able too now!

Hrt is free now....

I do understand, what I am saying is that there are different kinds of blood pressure machines. The kind that my mother was lent, which is the kind that the OP needs, is not an ambulatory blood pressure machine, that you mention. Ambulatory ones are ones you wear all the time to give 24 hour readings. This is a more specialist piece of equipment than the kind the OP needs and therefore it makes sense that there are fewer of them and therefore some kind of wait, though I reiterate that I don't believe it is acceptable to wait 8 months regardless. As several other people on the thread have mentioned as well, it is perfectly normal for some surgeries to lend out regular blood pressure machines as needed, with no waiting list.

Who takes responsibility if the readings are wrongly taken?

Oh give over. Patients have never ever needed to buy blood pressure machines before. Readings have had to be taken for all sorts of things since for ever and NHS staff have normally done them.

Moving with the times. HRT didn't used to exist. BP machines didn't used to exist.
I've been giving my own BP readings since I was a teenager on the pill, it's hardly revolutionary. Nobody has to buy anything - there are alternatives.

Great that’s you. For my daughter and the things she needs readings for I want a health professional to do it. That way I be know it’s actually been done- and accurately!

HRT was available in 1965 No home blood pressure machines then

It's not just a few machines.

We have 9 million people with diagnosed high blood pressure and an estimated 14 million with high blood pressure. That's an awful lot of machines to hand out!

I think in this case you'd have to bite the bullet and either buy a monitor (are they available to hire?) or go to the pharmacy.
However.... I was told by my GP surgery to go to the pharmacy (I've been on low dose BP medication for a few years now) rather than make an appointment with a nurse (mine is a 'once every few months' thing, not daily!).
But when l looked on the pharmacy and NHS websites, the guidelines are that if you've already been diagnosed with raised BP, they won't do it. You have to see, and l quote, 'a medical professional at your GP surgery'.
No one at my GP surgery, including the GP l saw, seemed to be aware of this. They actually had to look it up on the NHS website while l was there, and seemed very surprised that that was the case.

I've been using one from Amazon daily for the last six months after neighbour's stroke. Works just as well as my old professional Omron, calibrated against rapid response and paramedic machines. The cuff fits everyone and the batteries last forever.

Fifteen quid. If you ever have a medical episode at home it's incredibly helpful to medics.

Right but it isn't 1965 and there are home BP machines now. Like I said, moving with the times.

I wouldn't know about your daughter's needs would I? Whether or not she "needs" them done by a health professional would be between you and the health professionals.

Well obviously so the poster firing off re patients not buying machines being a drain on the nhs is frankly ridiculous.

Not sure that this is the NHS's fault/responsibility. I live in a country with outstanding healthcare and I own my own BP monitor. You have a very clear choice - buy one or go to a chemist twice daily - either way will allow the NHS to do their job properly. You may think it's unnecessary - that's a different matter which you can take up with them.

A very Unreasoned response. Is this laziness on your part?

As adults we need to get used to taking more control of our own lives.
It will also help you to understand health matters.