To think this nurse was unprofessional?

[ThisCoolOP]

So I went for an appointment at my GP surgery to try and verify the accuracy of two home blood pressure monitors we have in our house. The two monitors give virtually identical readings to each other for everyone in our family - but for my sister one reads 10 - 15 points lower than the other on thr systolic number.

During the appointment, my sister attempted to explain the situation and that she wanted to compare both machines against a manual reading. The nurse immediately told her to "just bin" one of the machines without any attempt to even compare it

The nurse then proceeded to only check one of the machines (the one that reads lower). When the machine displayed a reading of 150/100, she then performed a "manual check" and literally immediately stated "yeah 150/100". Might be just me, but this rapid confirmation seems like the nurse was simply just re-stating the reading she had seen on the machines screen (literally told me her reading was the exact same number) rather than conducting a genuine, independent manual verification. Her pre-judgement of which machine was correct was evident from the beginning, as she refused to consider checking the second machine, despite my clear explanation of the discrepancy of both machines for me, but identical readings for the rest of the family

As a result, I was left in the exact same position I was in before the appointment. I actually suffer from anxiety and came back in tears at how sharp and unhelpful she had been, and because it seemed she had made her mind up there and then she was only checking one machine and that was the correct one (despite them giving the same readings for everyone else), i don't trust what she told me at all

But she checked one, it was correct, so the other one must be incorrect.

Exactly

I am not in the UK, but surely if you are worried or have potentially high BP that requires monitoring the GP would put you on a 24 hr BP monitor to.have a true assessment of your or your Sisters BP.
Would it be worth asking g for this and then starting fresh with a new home monitor

It just seemed she had made her mind up at the beginning when she chose which to check, and and made her mind up there and then which was correct

To simplify - OP’s family own two machines which are giving two very different readings (for just one family member so far but I think that’s a bit of a red herring - one of the machines is not working properly for the person who needs it)

To check which was the most accurate surgery offered to check against a manual reading.

Nurse checked one machine against manual reading got identical results so has identified which of the two machines is reading correctly.

OP is upset that nurse announced before starting that she wasn’t going to bother testing both.

I suspect that the nurse has experience of many of these machines and accurately predicted which the more reliable was going to be.

All that matters now is OP knows she has one machine which is working as it should.

The readings. Do the low readings agree with nurse’s one or the high reading agree with nurse’s one.

Again. It wasnt me that booked the appointment, someone at the surgery who triages online portal messages did

Thats thing thing can't say whether the low readings or the high readings at home match more with the nurses one as they are in totally different settings. Whitecoat is an issue in a medical setting, its not in a home setting so can't go it was high at the surgery so the high one at home must be correct

@ThisCoolOP

Which of your two machines did the nurse test? The one which gives your sister the high blood pressure reading or the one which gives your sister the normal blood pressure reading?

I don’t think you’re unreasonable at all
OP - people on here are very sanctimonious and I think you’ve been a good sport replying to them all. It is annoying and I hope you get it sorted soon

Ridiculous.
Go to a pharmacy, have a BP check and use your machine which gives the closest reading to theirs. Stick to the same one machine. If either are way off or in any doubt buy a new one and bin the others. Take your BP for a week twice a day with the same machine and drop the readings in with your name on.
Can’t comment on the nurse’s attitude but the utter shit I’ve had to listen to today….
This is the tip of the iceberg folks. Out in 17 months thank the lord.
Practice nurse.

She's not asking you about the difference between the readings at home and the readings in the surgery.

You said one of your two machines always reads high for your sister at home, and one of your machines always reads normal for your sister at home.

Which of the two machines did the nurse test in the surgery?

You think a blood pressure reading of 150/100 is trivial ?

Some people with high blood pressure have to check it very often. If they didn't do it themselves with their own devices, it would be even MORE work for the NHS so it's probably more efficient to check the devices, as suggested by the GP.

A manual check is using a cuff, a manual balloon pump and a stethoscope.

OP - I'm going to say this as gently as possible.

I suspect - especially as you won't answer the question - that the machine that was tested and shown to be accurate is he machine that gives the higher reading at home.

I know your sister and you are going to be worried about that. It would be comforting to think that the other machine was the one to trust but the surgery test as proved otherwise.

Get your sister to crack on with the daily testing and she can get on the right meds as soon as possible.

Oh that’s interesting I thought the exact opposite.

Hey sorry, missed your comment. No. It's actually the one reading lower at home she checked. Thats why it would've been nice for the one reading higher to be checked also as would've known for certain

Id prob go with the machine the nurse has told you to use esp as she then took the bp manually. Im really surprised they didn't just give you one ( and that they don’t just charge patients that don’t return them, that’s awful!)

I think they used to give them but they've had people not returning them

Okay - so the health anxiety is that her high blood pressure may be missed?

I think at this point you should trust the nurse - she's compared the machine to the more reliable manual check.

Do the daily readings and then your sister can discuss with the GP.

I am completely mind-boggled that the conclusion was that the machines were bad and it wasn't an issue specific to the sister. It makes literally no sense.

OP take the batteries out of both machines and let them sit for about twenty minutes. Then put new batteries in each machine and do a reading on one person with both machines. My DH has his blood pressure monitored by the telehealth service via GP as he is in mild heart failure. This is what they advised us to do when readings were off. A normal reading should be somewhere under 120/80. Anything over, and definitely 150/100 is cause for concern and needs GP input.

I suspect that they were both correct, and it didn't matter which one she checked, she would have gotten the same result.

No haha, sister is already on BP medication. Also has one kidney which can cause BP to be higher. The fact one machine is reading high, we were trying to make sure via home monitoring its not actually as high as that machine is reading currently