The risks associated with high blood pressure could be reduced by making testing available in shopping centres or football grounds- enlarging on testing for prostate at non-league football, a meeting of medics has heard.

Around 88,000 within the area of mid and south Essex NHS have underlying, undiagnosed high pressure to a level which risks strokes and heart attacks. 

Mid and South Essex integrated care partnership, made up of NHS bodies, local authorities and social care providers, have said its blood pressure campaign, which was fully launched across the region in May, saw 29 people signposted to community pharmacy services of the 69 individuals screened in the first month.

Mobile digital health check stations placed within areas to best target those least likely to be engaged with primary care saw 182 health checks between March 11 and the end of April. 

Of those more than a quarter recorded high blood pressure.

The meeting on June 11 heard the programme identified one individual with the high blood pressure of over 200 mmHg who had been on hypertensive medication but stopped because of side effects even though they were of significant high risk.

Libraries testing is to be launched in September this year. 

Prof Mike Thorne, Mid and South Essex ICP chairman, said healthcare planners could learn valuable lessons from Morocco where blood pressure testing machines are routinely placed in shopping centres.

He noticed the prevalence of testing machines while on holiday.

 He said: "Interestingly I was an a tour bus and every single member went over to see."

Dan Doherty, NHS alliance director for mid-Essex, said blood pressure testing could expand on the work to get more men tested for prostate cancer at non-league grounds.

He said: "We need to build on some of the more opportunistic examples of where we can get tested. The example we did was non-league football.

"This is no disrespect to followers of non-league football but if generally you want to find a group of blokes who eat chips and burgers then non league football is quite a good place to go."

He added: "I think its about how we can build on it – whether its in an air conditioning shopping centre for one group or non-league football for another- it's about getting the concept of testing out in the environment which works for them."