Barber helping to cut heart attacks with free blood pressure checks

A barber shop in Lancashire has been taking part in a national NHS drive to cut heart attacks.

Lucky 13 Barbershop in Lytham St Annes began offering free blood pressure checks to clients in April last year, and to date has carried out more than 200 checks.

The level of undiagnosed and untreated hypertension (high blood pressure) is particularly high on the Fylde Coast, and the pilot project targeted men, who are often more reluctant to go and see a doctor.

Theo Petrocelli, owner of Lucky 13, said: “(Men) talk to us about all sorts of situations, from their health to their home life problems, and I said I’d love to be able to check on men and make sure that they’re okay.

“There’s a lot of people out there that are struggling with hypertension and don’t realise they are. We didn’t realise how good the impact in the area would be.

“People don’t want to go into the GP – they’re scared to death of talking to anyone in authority. They’re coming in and actually asking for their blood pressure to be taken now.”

The project, initiated by NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) and funded by the Blue Skies charity, has also taken place in other areas of England, and saw barbers train in blood pressure testing, encouraging their clients to have their blood pressure tested in the familiar and comfortable environment of a barber shop.

Clients were informed how to record their blood pressure and what the readings meant, and were also provided information about healthy eating, alcohol consumption and other relevant public health information.

If the result of the blood pressure check required further investigation, they were signposted to either the nearest pharmacy, their own GP or urgent care as directed through a pathway.

The blood pressure monitoring project began in April 2024 and officially finished in October 2024.  However, the blood pressure machine was left with the barber shop and is still in place with Theo continuing to encourage blood pressure checks for clients.

During the seven-month project, 182 people were tested (158 men, and 24 women), 31 of whom were advised to attend urgent care as their blood pressure warranted further assessment, and a further seven were found to have an irregular pulse upon testing and advised to attend their GP.

Jeannie Hayhurst, the ICB’s cardiovascular disease clinical lead, said: “Hypertension can cause serious health issues, such as heart attacks and strokes but unfortunately, high blood pressure is symptomless, which means there are lots of people within our population who have high blood pressure and are at high risk of these conditions, without knowing it. 

“With projects like this, targeted at those who may be at risk and less likely to want to visit their GP, it raises awareness of hypertension and offers advice to those who are found to have high blood pressure to take further action, implement lifestyle changes and if appropriate get the medication to lower their risk of heart attack or stroke.”