Category: 3.4. Waiting room health monitors and surgery pods
The focus is on helping patients to keep well and look after themselves. Therefore, Dawlish Medical Group in Devon decided to install a freestanding machine for patients to test their blood pressure. This service is freely available. Patients who are passing can ‘pop in’ as part of their own self-care, or blood pressure readings can be taken before a consultation and the results reviewed.
The cost of the machine is around £2,000, but Dawlish’s very active League of Friends funded the purchase. The machine is simple to use. It asks patients for their name, date of birth and information on whether they smoke or not.
The reading is immediate, and arrives on a slip of paper, but is also recorded so patient notes can be updated and GPs can be alerted to any problems.
The drawbacks of installing the machine included:
Feedback from our patients is very positive, particularly as we have a high proportion of over 65s in our practice population. It’s not an alternative to seeing a health professional, but it is a really effective add-on service. It underpins the Government’s call to help individuals take responsibility for their own health.
Explains Practice Manager Janine Payne: ‘It’s a great service to offer our patients. It has very wide application from the ‘worried well’ who just want to check up on themselves, to people with known high blood pressure conditions. Equally, we have young women running out of the contraceptive pill who can take their blood pressure, and if they are within normal limits, we can give them a prescription for a month.’
Janine Payne, 01626 884112
janine.payne@nhs.net
