The UK’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has launched a new quality standard for the management of hypertension, which advocates a person-centred approach and recommends ambulatory blood pressure monitoring.
In a press statement, NICE stated that a person-centred approach was fundamental to delivering high-quality care to adults with hypertension.
The new quality standard on hypertension consists of a prioritised set of specific, concise and measurable statements that, when delivered collectively, should contribute to improving the effectiveness, quality, safety and experience of care for people with the condition.
The quality standard contains six statements. These include: people with suspected hypertension are offered ambulatory blood pressure monitoring to confirm a diagnosis of hypertension; people with newly diagnosed hypertension receive investigations for target organ damage within one month of diagnosis; and people with newly diagnosed hypertension and a 10-year cardiovascular disease risk of 20% or higher are offered statin therapy.
Gareth Beevers, professor of Medicine at Birmingham City Hospital, on behalf of Blood Pressure UK, which endorses the quality standard, said: “We are pleased to see the NICE quality standard for hypertension recommending that 24 hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM), or failing that, home blood pressure measurement, should be routine in the evaluation of recently diagnosed hypertensives.”
NICE quality standards describe high-priority areas for quality improvement in a defined care or service area. They are derived either from NICE guidance or NICE accredited sources, and apply throughout the NHS in England.
