Bert Thurston gives advice to a shopper after he had taken her blood pressure
Once again, Emeritus Professor Bert Thurston led the way for seven volunteers from the Rotary Club of Leicester Novus helping shoppers stay healthy.
Bert, a doctor of medicine, recorded the blood pressure of shoppers at the Asda store in Abbey Lane, Leicester, along with other medical professionals while Pam Spokes, Jason Chauhan, Deepak Karia, Sarita Shah, Jim Matthews and president Pradeep Popat encouraged shoppers to take advantage of the free service.
After two-and-a-half hours, 75 shoppers had left the store having had their blood pressures taken and with a note to say what their blood pressure had been and whether or not they need to seek further medical advice.
The event was run by Leicester De Montfort Rotary Club, led by Chris Trivett, with support from Novus and Rotary Club of Leicester members.
Novus co-ordinator Jim Matthews said: “Once again all three Rotary Clubs in Leicester must thank the management and staff of Asda in Abbey Lane. Not only did they make us very welcome, but staff on the tills told shoppers what Rotarians were doing in the store and recommended them to get their blood pressures taken.That made our job very much easier.
“This exercise is a real win-win. People go home after shopping knowing that their blood pressure is fine, which is really nice; or that they need to take action and maybe medicine to get their blood pressure back to normal. But the most important people were the medical professionals like Bert and the specialist nurses from Leicester Royal Infirmary.”
Later, Chris Trivett said: “During the course of the day we saw 133 participants, approximately evenly divided between male and female. O those seen, these were the recommendations provided;
89 required No Further Action (67%) [67% in 2017]
23 required referral to GP within 1 month (23%) [28% in 2017]
9 required referral to GP within 1 week (9%) [5% in 2017]
1 person was recommended to attend Hospital immediately (<1%)
I am sure each of us have anecdotes from those we encountered. A number of people were returning for BP tests having visited us in previous years and 1 person told me he is now being monitored for high blood pressure, having been first detected by our efforts last year.
In short, the KYBP event works and the public health screening process Rotary provides is effective.
Thanks again for your efforts and to Jim and Peter C, please give our thanks for the inputs from members of Novus & Leicester; especially Bert Thurston who put in a long shift taking blood pressures.”
