1,200 Westmoreland residents targeted for blood-pressure screening
Published:Wednesday | May 17, 2023 | 1:55 PM
Some 1,200 residents of Westmoreland are being targeted for blood-pressure checks by the Westmoreland Public Health Department on World Hypertension Day today.
Health Promotion and Education Officer for the parish, Gerald Miller, told JIS News that the initiative involves collaboration with the National Health Fund (NHF).
“We were asked to work with them in screening persons for hypertension,” he said.
“We have enlisted the support of most of our pharmacies, as well as our high schools, including the Llandilo School of Special Education that has school nurses,” he noted.
Miller told JIS News that the Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB) has also come on board, and the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) team will be assisting with doing blood-pressure checks at the police station in Negril.
Other participating entities are Fontana and D and Y pharmacies, Shoppers Fair Supermarket in Savanna-la-Mar and Value Master Supermarket in Negril, and Professional Eye Care in Frome.
Miller said the Health Department is pleased with the support for the initiative, noting that the 1,200 targets for screenings are expected to be surpassed.
“We have been working assiduously, putting things in place to ensure that this happens,” he noted.
Miller told JIS News that the persons screened will be given index cards that have their blood pressure reading and the time when the pressure was taken.
“That information is going to be captured for each person, then it is going to be sent to the Health Department where… the data will be uploaded to a database so we can know when we have reached our target and the NHF will be able to see what is happening and monitor what is going on,” he explained.
Miller said that the NHF's screening target for the day is 20,000 islandwide, and 4,000 for the island's western region.
World Hypertension Day will be observed under the theme 'Measure your blood pressure accurately, control, live longer'.
Follow The Gleaner on Twitter and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us at onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com or editors@gleanerjm.com.