Hypertension engagement programme

Healthwatch Enfield is launching a hypertension engagement programme in partnership with North Central London Integrated Care Systems. Carried out alongside other local Healthwatch organisations in north London, the programme will improve the information, support, and guidance available to local people at risk of hypertension.

Hypertension, or high blood pressure, affects around a third of adults in the UK. Its symptoms are often unnoticeable but left untreated it can increase the risk of heart problems like strokes or heart attacks. The only way to diagnose hypertension is by having a blood pressure check.

Our engagement programme will work closely with local people from ethnic groups that are historically more likely to have high blood pressure, including black Caribbean, black African, and south Asian communities. We will also be working with groups who are less likely to be registered with a GP due to language barriers, such as Bulgarian and Romanian communities in Enfield.

As part of the programme, we will develop concise, accessible, and clear information on hypertension, its risks, where to go in Enfield to get a check, and what preventative action is recommended by the NHS. We will distribute this information throughout the borough and ensure it is available to all online. Alongside this, we will host a series of events for local people to attend.

To help inform decision makers and service providers on the most effective ways to improve the accessibility of information and support on hypertension, we will be carrying out detailed engagement with residents. In these in-depth conversations, we will talk to local people about their experiences of accessing services and ask them how they would prefer to receive information and support in the future.

Our hypertension engagement programme will run from September 2022 to January 2023.