As part of the Chambers’ focus throughout May on SDG 3, Good Health & Wellbeing, Cornwells Chemist of Newcastle-under-Lyme have written a guest blog on how they’re helping to promote good health in our local community.
Established in 1835, Cornwell’s Chemists grew from a single store to a group of seven pharmacies proudly based in Staffordshire. Today, Cornwell’s Chemists is one the largest family-owned chain of pharmacies in Staffordshire. We have selectively retained our local presence and we employ over a hundred people within the Staffordshire community.
We believe in training from the outset and in retaining the best: many of our employees work with us for most of their adult lives and their loyalty and commitment to Cornwell’s Chemists and our customers reflect our core ethos – we truly are a ‘family’ company.
As the world looks to get back on its feet post-covid, Cornwell’s are primed to work with the NHS and other stakeholders to better the health of the nation by offering an array of private and NHS services. Here are some of the healthcare services we are currently offering across Staffordshire.
Our private services include health check MOTs to help monitor blood pressure, cholesterol and BMI, earwax removal and blood testing.
We also specialise in Hypertension Case Finding, which is the biggest risk factor for Cardiovascular disease and is one of the top five risk factors for all premature death and disability in England. An estimated 5.5 million people have undiagnosed hypertension across the country.
CVD is a key driver of health inequalities, accounting for around 25% of the life expectancy gap (27% in men and 24% in women) between rich and poor populations in England. Those in the most deprived 10% of the population are almost twice as likely to die as a result of CVD than those in the least deprived 10% of the population. Additionally, 60% of excess mortality for those living with severe mental illness can be attributed to preventable physical health conditions, such as heart disease.
Residents of the most deprived areas in England are 30% more likely to have high blood pressure (BP) compared to those in the least deprived areas. Community pharmacy BP monitoring has the potential to increase the detection of hypertension within local populations and is expected to positively impact health inequalities by targeting people who do not routinely see their GP or use other NHS services.
Cornwell’s Chemists are working alongside the NHS to offer free spot-check BP tests to over 40s with undiagnosed blood pressure. If the BP is showing to be high, we can conduct a more thorough BP check, known as an ambulatory blood pressure monitoring session, whereby we fit a monitor to detect blood pressure over 24hours. This may then result in us liaising with the GP to offer the patient early treatment for high blood pressure if the results deem it necessary.
Cornwell’s also operate female health clinics – an accessible healthcare service that includes things like emergency hormonal contraception and urinary interact infection service.
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