During the month of June over 600 community pharmacies across Cheshire and Merseyside will be promoting their free blood pressure check facilities to raise awareness of blood pressure and the associated risks of developing serious health issues.



A number of local councillors and officers from across the Liverpool City Region had their blood pressure checked to encourage members of their own communities to do the same.



Councillor Andy Moorhead, Liverpool City Region Political Lead for Health and Wellbeing and Leader of Knowsley Council said following his check: “because high blood pressure is one condition that doesn’t usually have any symptoms, it is a concern to us that too many within our communities may have high blood pressure and be totally unaware of the fact. I encourage everyone, like I did, to visit their local pharmacy to have the quick and simple check that could ultimately save their lives.”



Utilising the British Heart Foundation’s ’10 Minutes to Change Your Life’ campaign materials, members of the public are encouraged to take control of their own health. The key message being that by taking ten minutes every day to make small changes to lifestyle, individuals can lower their blood pressure and improve their health.



625,000 people in Cheshire & Merseyside are affected by high blood pressure and almost half of this number thought to be unaware that they have the condition. It is, therefore, critical that urgent action is taken to prevent, identify and manage people at risk of developing serious diseases such as heart disease, stroke, chronic kidney disease and dementia.



Through visual displays using British Heart Foundation materials, informational leaflets and proactive health messages, pharmacists will measure blood pressure and should intervention be necessary provide healthy living advice and/or signposting to GPs or Practice Nurses for a more thorough diagnosis and treatment plan. Although the BHF campaign runs throughout June, free blood pressure checks are available in most pharmacies all year round.



All members of the community, regardless of whether they have high blood pressure or not, are encouraged to reduce their daily salt intake, make more time for activity and limit their alcohol consumption.



The nine Cheshire and Merseyside (C&M) local authority Directors of Public Health have an overall aim to improve local health and wellbeing outcomes of people across the region. The prevention, detection and management of high blood pressure is a key priority and the recent award of £100,000 from The British Heart Foundation will help with the development and implementation of innovative, community focused services and initiatives to detect new cases of high blood pressure across Cheshire & Merseyside.



Champs works in partnership to reduce high blood pressure with many organisations such as Public Health England, NHS England, Stroke Association, The British Heart Foundation, Blood Pressure UK and Cheshire and Merseyside Fire and Rescue Services.



Following the award Jenny Hargrave, Director of Innovation and Health & Wellbeing at the British Heart Foundation, said: “We are pleased to support Cheshire & Merseyside and are hopeful the project will allow more people to be detected and monitored, undoubtedly saving lives.”



Dr Muna Abdel Aziz, C&M DPH Lead for Blood Pressure said: “Supporting awareness raising campaigns in pharmacies, such as the current BHF ’10 Minutes to Change Your Life’ campaign, helps us achieve a key aim of empowering our communities to take ownership of their health and wellbeing. We hope that the campaign is a success and that via the combination of awareness raising and the boost to initiatives and services from the BHF funding we can start reaching the 300,000 undetected cases.”