Home Blood Pressure Monitoring
The best way to monitor your blood pressure is with a home monitor. Blood pressure varies throughout each day. This means that it is better to take the average of a series of home blood pressure readings than taking a single reading in the surgery.
We recommend home blood pressure monitoring for anyone who needs to regularly monitor their blood pressure. This includes anyone with a diagnosis of Hypertension (High Blood Pressure), Diabetes, Stroke or TIA, heart disease, and Chronic Kidney Disease.
You can buy a good monitor for around £25 from a pharmacy or online. Before you buy, check that your monitor is on the list of officially validated monitors. You can find this list at bihsoc.org/bp-monitors/for-home-use/.
Alternatively we have a limited amount of blood pressure monitors that we can lend to patients who are unable to purchase one of their own. Please ask the reception team if you would like to borrow a machine for home readings.
Please note we ask for 7 days of blood pressure readings.
Read This First
Before taking your blood pressure, please read the official guidance on how to measure your blood pressure correctly at BIHSOC: Home Blood Pressure Monitoring Explained
Record your blood pressure for 7 days in a row. On each day, record your blood pressure in the morning and in the evening. Morning means between 06:00 and noon and Evening means between 18:00 and midnight. On each occasion take at least 2 readings, leaving at least a minute between each. If the first two readings are very different, take 2 or 3 further readings. For each occasion, when taking more than one blood pressure reading, enter the lowest of the top (systolic) and lowest of the bottom (diastolic) reading onto the form.
For example, if on the morning of day one, you take 3 blood pressure readings, enter the lowest of the top number and the lowest of the bottom number as the blood pressure reading for that measurement.
148/88
152/84
136/90
In the example above the blood pressure to enter would be:
136/84
Please make a note of your readings each day and then submit 7 days worth in one go using the form below.