Recommendations

1.  General practices and other primary care and community services should adopt, as a matter of priority, the Modernisation Initiative’s evidence-based care pathway for prevention and treatment of hypertension (based on NICE guidance) across primary, secondary and community settings. This should be incorporated into clinical protocols and subjected to routine quality assurance.

2.  All local primary and community services, voluntary groups, communities and partnerships should support the ‘Know Your Number’ blood pressure awareness campaign funded by the Modernisation Initiative in collaboration with the Blood Pressure Association. The campaign is aimed initially at the Caribbean community – particularly men – in Lambeth as well as Southwark. The West African community will follow in December and white communities next year.

3.  Primary care development teams should encourage and support practices in recording ethnic coding of their patients to provide more targeted care and reduce the continuing health inequalities relating to the management of hypertension. Where appropriate this support might include financial incentives.

 5.  Further research should be undertaken to investigate the barriers to detection, treatment and compliance among different population subgroups in Southwark.