Hypertension Case Finding Service

Map showing Community Pharmacies signed up to provide the service

NHS England » NHS community pharmacy hypertension case-finding advanced service (Updated 1st December 2023)

Download the service flowchart (Annex A) (PDF) (New 1st December 2023)

Download guidance on measuring clinic blood pressures in line with NICE (Annex B) (PDF) (New 1st December 2023)

Download the clinic blood pressure flow chart (Annex C) (PDF) (New 1st December 2023)

Download the ABPM flowchart (Annex D) (PDF) (New 1st December 2023)

NHE England have published the updated specification for the Hypertension Case-Finding Service, the key changes include:-

• The service should be provided by suitably trained and competent pharmacy staff. For the rest of this webpage, the term “pharmacy staff” will be used to denote pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and other non-registered members of the pharmacy team. The Responsible Pharmacist must ensure that delegated tasks are being undertaken safely by competent pharmacy staff. The pharmacy owner must ensure all pharmacy staff providing the service are appropriately trained and that clinical supervision for the service is being provided by the pharmacist.
• All Pharmacy contractors should have an ABPM machine on the premise and to be able to offer this service as a whole entity. Pharmacy owners opting to provide the service must undertake both stages of it, where clinically required, i.e. it is not possible to just undertake clinic BP readings and not ABPM.
• Clarification that people with a high systolic and normal diastolic reading or a high diastolic and normal systolic reading should be recorded as a high blood pressure reading.
• Clarifications on the timescales for communication of results to the patient’s general practice (and others, where clinically necessary) to include local agreements related to how this information is communicated.
• Adjustments to the advice related to patients identified with ‘very high clinic blood pressure’.
• Removal of the requirement for ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) to be carried out over 24 hours to bring the service requirements in line with NICE guidance. It can now be undertaken during the person’s usual waking hours.
• Adjustments to the advice following identification of stage 2 hypertension after ABPM.
• The retention period for data supplied to the NHSBA’s MYS portal has been confirmed as three years.
• On withdrawal from provision of the service, Contractors will be asked for their reason for withdrawing.
• Contractors will not be eligible for the setup fee if they withdraw from provision of the service within 30 days of signing up to provide it.

• Be familiar with the NICE guideline Hypertension in adults: diagnosis and management [NG136];
• Have read and understood the operational processes to provide the service as described in the service specification; and
• Have completed the recommended training on how to use the blood pressure monitoring equipment which should be provided by the equipment manufacturer/supplier.

• Validated BP monitors for home use
• Validated BP monitors for specialist use