Only patients with BP below 160/100 should be referred for surgery to avoid cancellations, guidelines say

GPs should include information on a patient’s blood pressure (BP) in referral letters for elective surgery and should refer only those with BP lower than 160/100 mm Hg over the previous 12 months, say new guidelines that aim to reduce surgery cancellations due to high BP.1

Nearly 1% of planned surgery in the NHS is currently cancelled at the last minute, and hypertension is a common reason.

“Across the UK this equates to approximately 100 concerned and inconvenienced patients each day, with associated costs to the NHS and the national economy,” said the co-chair of the guideline working party, Andrew Hartle, who is a consultant anaesthetist at St Mary’s Hospital in London and president of the …