The NHS is expanding its efforts to prevent strokes and heart attacks by offering blood pressure checks in various local community settings such as barbershops, mosques, and dominoes clubs.

This initiative intends to detect high blood pressure and mitigate heart attack risks.

NHS teams worked alongside Black Thrive and MyCommunity Lambeth to provide blood pressure checks at a Brixton dominoes club, while a free community health check day was conducted at Birmingham Central Mosque.

Earlier in May 2023, high-street pharmacies supported over 149,000 blood pressure checks to individuals above 40, compared with 58,345 in the previous year, highlighted NHS.

This initiative is expected to prevent over 1,300 heart attacks and strokes this year.

In addition, the NHS conducted community health check days, with further funding planned to enable 2.5 million blood pressure checks in community pharmacies. The aim is to prevent over 1,350 cardiovascular events annually.

England chief pharmaceutical officer David Webb said: “The enormous expansion in the number of blood pressure checks delivered over the last year is thanks to the hard work of community pharmacies which have more than doubled the number of blood pressure checks delivered, and the innovation of local teams, going into the heart of communities with mobile sites that can visit places like barber shops and dominoes clubs.

“With the number of people living with major illnesses including heart disease and other cardiovascular conditions set to grow substantially over the coming years, it has never been more important to put in place preventative measures like easy-to-access blood pressure checks that can pick up the early signs and risks, with figures showing teams are on track to prevent more than 1,300 heart attacks and strokes this year alone.”