24 Hour Blood Pressure Monitoring Service

Tender description

Castle Point & Rochford Clinical Commissioning Group is seeking providers who can provide high quality 24 Hour Blood Pressure Monitoring services in a community setting, to improve patient experience/access to community services, patient’s choice and to avoid unnecessary referrals to secondary care. The 24 Hour Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring (ABPM) is a low risk measurement of blood pressure over a prolonged period, usually 24 hours. It has become increasingly popular in the assessment of hypertensive patients. Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring is indicated to exclude ‘white coat’ hypertension. It has a role in assessing apparent drug resistant hypertension, symptomatic hypo or hypertension in the elderly, pregnant women and to assess adequacy of control in patients at high risk of cardio vascular disease. It is worth noting that some patients with ‘white coat’ hypertension, 10% per year, will convert to having established hypertension in the long term. The technique of Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring is specialised requiring validated and appropriate quality control measures to be used. If the clinic blood pressure is 140/90 mmHg or higher, offer ambulatory blood pressure monitoring to confirm the diagnosis of hypertension. The interpretation of the Ambulatory Blood Pressure profile is expected to include mean daytime, mean night time at sleep and mean 24 hour measurements, as well as consideration of information from patient diaries and times of drug treatment. When using ABPM to confirm a diagnosis of hypertension, ensure that at least two measurements per hour are taken during the person’s usual waking hours (for example, between 08:00 and 22:00). Use the average value of at least 14 measurements taken during the person’s usual waking hours to confirm a diagnosis of hypertension. The service shall be delivered from appropriate premises within the Castle Point & Rochford CCG locality.