Thousands of people stand to gain quicker access to cardiovascular screening after NHS England opened a route for high-street pharmacies to provide free seven-minute finger-prick cholesterol tests. The scheme is designed to identify high-risk patients sooner and link them into treatment pathways that could prevent heart attacks and strokes.
The point-of-care test takes a small blood sample from a fingertip and produces a result during the consultation. Eligibility is limited to people aged 40 to 84 who are not pregnant and who have not had a blood test in the previous year. A pharmacist prescriber will deliver lifestyle advice, offer a blood pressure check during the consultation, decide whether drugs such as statins are needed, and send patients a copy of their results by email.
The national expansion was announced at the European Society of Cardiology annual congress in Munich and sits inside a broader 10-year plan that aims to reduce deaths from heart disease and stroke by a quarter within the next decade. Health officials described the rollout as the first programme of its kind globally.
The decision follows a north London pilot run by Barts Health NHS trust with UCLPartners and Heart UK that screened 2,493 people. That project judged 19% of participants to be at high risk of a heart attack or stroke over the next ten years, and at least 88 people started taking statins after their checks. Clinical leads told officials scaling the model could allow pharmacists to act on cardiovascular risk earlier and reduce inequalities in the places that bear the greatest disease burden.
David Webb, the chief pharmaceutical officer for England, said, “By making it easier for people to get a quick and convenient cholesterol health check on their local high street, we can spot ticking timebombs earlier, helping people take action, and prevent heart attacks and strokes before they happen. This is the latest in a series of initiatives involving pharmacies in delivering care previously only offered in GP surgeries as part of the 10-year health plan to bring care closer to where people live.”
Dr Rani Khatib, NHS England’s national specialty adviser for cardiovascular disease prevention, urged people to be aware of common risk factors and “know their numbers”. Alison McGovern, a health minister, described the programme as “exactly the type of innovation” she wanted to see and argued that earlier detection can protect health while easing pressure on services.
About 100 NHS pharmacies will begin offering the checks in the first phase from this autumn, with a wider roll-out planned thereafter. If national delivery mirrors the pilot, more people could be referred for treatment sooner and a larger share of routine preventive care will shift to community pharmacies, testing whether the approach can meet the 10-year target to cut heart and stroke deaths by a quarter.
