Keeping blood pressure at the right level is an important part of reducing your risk of heart, brain and kidney disease and is a key part of diabetic care. If you have a blood pressure machine at home (or can borrow one for a few days), it would be extremely useful.
During the current lockdown and in the months beyond, we’re trying to find ways to help our patients (and particularly those at higher risk) to stay safe from this virus. We want you to have the best possible healthcare… but also the safest possible healthcare. That means only bringing you in to the surgery when we absolutely have to. Where possible, we’re encouraging home blood pressure monitoring. For long term health conditions such as diabetes, asthma, COPD and heart disease most of our reviews will be by phone or video link and when we do bring you in, we aim to do as much as we can in one visit to minimise any risk to you. |
In the last few months we’ve found that an unexpected number of our patients have home blood pressure machines and this has been invaluable in monitoring and adjusting treatment. If you have a machine and have internet access, you can send us your readings using https://penybontsurgery.webgp.com/reviews (choosing Hypertension Review).
If you’re interested in buying one, reasonable options can be found from about £15-20 and are widely available online, from all the major pharmacy chains and in some bigger supermarkets. The British & Irish Hypertension Society has a list of approved models at https://bihsoc.org/bp-monitors/for-home-use/ and we’d strongly recommend choosing one from that list.
If possible, use one that fits on the upper arm and using the right cuff size is very important – a cuff that’s too small will give high readings and one that’s too large will read low. Measure around your arm half way between your elbow and your shoulder and use the chart below to see what cuff size you need – medium is fine for most, but not all adults.
| Cuff Size | Measurement |
| Small | 17-22 cm (6.75 – 8.75 inches) |
| Medium | 22-32 cm (8.75 – 12.5 inches) |
| Large | 32-42 cm (12.5 – 16.5 inches) |
https://www.penybontsurgery.wales.nhs.uk/patient-info/conditions/blood-pressure/self-monitoring/ is a good guide to self monitoring and covers how many readings to take, when and how often and what target you should be aiming for.
Once you have some readings, use https://penybontsurgery.webgp.com/reviews (choosing the Hypertension Review link) to send them to us.
