High Blood Pressure: policy context
There is no separate policy on high blood pressure (also known as hypertension) for Scotland, however it is identified as a priority within the Heart Disease Action Plan, 2021. This recommends the wider use of blood pressure monitoring in community settings and self-monitoring at home, including a focus on improving Tele-monitoring of blood pressure through the "Scale-up BP" initiative, which is part of the Technology Enabled Care (TEC) programme, funded by the Scottish government. The final evaluation of this initiative reports positive outcomes in controlling hypertension.
The NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (now Health Improvement Scotland) Clinical Standards for Heart Disease 2010 included two relevant recommendations: that information on high blood pressure is provided to patients and that blood pressure is recorded for all those aged 40 and over every 5 years. The 2014 Heart Disease Improvement plan does not specifically mention hypertension, but does refer in general to the importance of the prevention of heart disease. Likewise, although hypertension is not specifically identified in the 2009 Long Term Conditions action plan, the actions set out there would clearly apply to high blood pressure as a long term condition.
In 2019 a cross-party group produced the report Beating high blood pressure: Scotland's silent killer funded by the British Heart Foundation.
There is specific guidance on the clinical management of high blood pressure in Scotland in the form of the Scottish Intercollegiate Guideline Network (SIGN) guideline 149 (2017) - Risk estimation and the prevention of cardiovascular disease.
UK wide guidance is provided in the NICE clinical guidelines NG136 (published 2019 and updated March 2022) Hypertension in adults: diagnosis and management and in NICE public health guidance 25 Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease (2010). The 2014 Joint British Societies (JBS3) report includes a risk score to guide the treatment of high blood pressure.
High Blood Pressure was included in the Quality and Outcome Framework of the 2004 General Medical Services contract.
