Almost always symptomless, and one of the largest preventable causes of stroke and heart attack.
Assessed and treated by a GMC-registered GP
Prescriptions, sick notes and referral letters included
A written treatment plan after every appointment
Your NHS records in the room, with your consent
Care led personally by Dr Khan
Attentive, unhurried care that listens properly
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Registered with the Care Quality Commission
High blood pressure causes no symptoms in almost everyone who has it. That is the entire problem — it is diagnosed by measurement or not at all, and untreated it is among the largest preventable causes of stroke, heart attack, kidney disease and vascular dementia.
Around one in four UK adults has it, and a substantial proportion do not know.
Usually none. Blood pressure is not something you can feel, and waiting for symptoms means waiting for damage.
Very high readings can cause headache, visual disturbance, nosebleeds or breathlessness — but these indicate severe hypertension needing urgent attention, not typical raised blood pressure.
Blood pressure varies constantly — with stress, pain, caffeine, a full bladder, and with being in a clinic at all.
Diagnosis needs readings over time, and home readings are more reliable than clinic ones. White-coat effect is real and substantial: a meaningful proportion of people with raised clinic readings have entirely normal blood pressure at home.
That week of readings is worth more than any single measurement anyone takes of you.
Blood pressure is never assessed in isolation, because treatment depends on total cardiovascular risk rather than the number alone.
Diagnosis under 40, very high readings, or blood pressure that resists three medications warrants looking for an underlying cause — kidney disease, hormonal conditions, and sleep apnoea, which is common, treatable, and frequently missed.
Diagnosis needs readings over time, not a single measurement — and home readings are more reliable than clinic ones, which are inflated by white-coat effect. A home monitor costs around £20 and is genuinely worth having.
The consultation covers your readings, calculates your ten-year cardiovascular risk properly, and arranges kidney function and cholesterol testing, since these change what treatment is appropriate.
Treatment is medication where indicated, alongside the changes that genuinely move the number.
Call 999 for chest pain, sudden severe headache, weakness or numbness on one side, difficulty speaking, or sudden visual loss.
A reading of 180/120 or above with symptoms needs same-day medical attention. Without symptoms it still needs urgent review.
Liquorice raises blood pressure genuinely and substantially in some people, and is a recognised cause of resistant hypertension.
Regular NSAIDs — ibuprofen, naproxen — raise it too, which matters if you take them for chronic pain.
Decongestants and some cold remedies do the same.
Blood pressure medication treats rather than cures — the number rises again if you stop, which is not a sign it was not working.
Where weight loss or lifestyle change has been substantial, dose reduction is genuinely possible, but it is done deliberately and with monitoring, not by simply stopping.
NHS care for high blood pressure is free, comprehensive, and genuinely good — diagnosis, monitoring, all the medications as cheap generics, and annual review including bloods and cardiovascular risk assessment. For a long-term condition needing lifelong monitoring, the NHS is the right home for this, and we would say so.
The most useful purchase is not a consultation. A validated home blood pressure monitor costs around twenty to thirty pounds, and home readings are more reliable than clinic ones — they exclude white coat hypertension, which affects a substantial minority and leads to unnecessary treatment.
Check it is validated by the British and Irish Hypertension Society; many cheap wrist monitors are not, and an inaccurate monitor is worse than none.
Where a private consultation is genuinely useful is interpreting home readings, discussing whether treatment is warranted, and reviewing cardiovascular risk properly — which takes longer than ten minutes and is often rushed.
Free and more effective than people expect: reducing salt, reducing alcohol, regular activity, and weight loss where relevant. Salt reduction alone produces a meaningful fall in blood pressure, and most dietary salt comes from processed food rather than the salt cellar.
A blood pressure of 180/120 or above, particularly with headache, chest pain, breathlessness or visual symptoms, needs same-day assessment.
If you are aged 40 to 74 and have no diagnosed cardiovascular condition, the NHS Health Check is free every five years and covers blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes risk. Ask your own practice before paying for a private health screen — it duplicates most of it.
NICE NG136, Hypertension in adults: diagnosis and management, is the governing guideline. It recommends ambulatory or home blood pressure monitoring to confirm the diagnosis rather than relying on clinic readings, which is the basis for the point above.
NG136 sets treatment thresholds — offering treatment at stage 1 hypertension in people under 80 with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, kidney disease, target organ damage or a 10-year QRISK of 10% or more.
NG136 sets out the treatment steps by age and ethnicity — ACE inhibitor or ARB for those under 55, calcium channel blocker for those 55 and over or of Black African or African-Caribbean family origin.
NG136 recommends assessing target organ damage — urine ACR, bloods, ECG and fundoscopy — at diagnosis.
NG136 defines accelerated hypertension requiring same-day referral, underpinning the urgent advice above.
Feeling fine is the normal experience of high blood pressure — it causes no symptoms in almost everyone until it causes a stroke or a heart attack.
Treatment is not for how you feel now. It is for what happens in fifteen years.
That is white-coat effect and it is extremely common. Home readings are the more reliable of the two.
Bring a week of properly taken home readings — they carry more weight than anything measured in a clinic.
An upper-arm cuff, around £20, from the validated list published by the British and Irish Hypertension Society.
Avoid wrist monitors — position affects them too much to be reliable.
Usually, yes — but not always, and not necessarily at the same dose.
Substantial weight loss or a big change in alcohol intake can allow the dose to come down. That is done with monitoring rather than by stopping and hoping.
Below 140/90 measured in a clinic, or below 135/85 at home, is the usual treatment threshold for most adults — with lower targets for some, including people with diabetes or kidney disease.
Your target is individual, and depends on age and overall risk.
Stress raises blood pressure at the moment you are stressed. Whether chronic stress causes sustained hypertension is less clear.
What is clear is that stress drives the things that do — poor sleep, alcohol, weight gain, inactivity.
Worth looking for if you are under 40, your readings are very high, or three medications are not controlling it.
Sleep apnoea is the commonest missed cause, and treating it can improve blood pressure substantially.
Most people take these medicines without difficulty — and where side effects occur, switching within or between drug classes usually resolves them.
A dry cough on an ACE inhibitor is common and easily fixed by changing class. Do not simply stop and say nothing; there are several alternatives.
August 23, 2026
Ongoing
Time to be seen
Appointment length
Your NHS record in the room
Written treatment plan
Told when a test isn’t needed
Cost
Same day, usually
20 minutes
Yes, with your consent
Included
Yes, and told why
£40 for 20 minutes
Varies by practice
Typically 10 minutes
Yes, your full record
Not routinely
Usually
Free
Same day
Often 10 to 15 minutes
Usually not
Sometimes charged
Varies by provider
Often a subscription
Same-day access is usually available, from 6am to 10pm, seven days a week. You choose a time that suits you rather than waiting on hold at 8am.
Yes. Care is led personally by Dr Mohammad Khan, so you are not passed between clinicians. Continuity is the point of a small practice: someone who knows your history and is listening attentively rather than working through a checklist.
Yes, with your consent. We can access your Summary Care Record during the consultation, so your current medications, allergies and significant history are in the room. That means fewer questions you have already answered elsewhere, and safer prescribing.
No. We are not here to replace GPs, only to support them. Your NHS practice remains responsible for your ongoing care, and with your consent we write to them after the consultation. We are useful when you need to be seen sooner, or want more time than a standard appointment allows.
Twenty unhurried minutes and a comprehensive assessment. A written treatment plan is included, along with any prescription, sick note or referral letter arising from the consultation, at no extra charge.
£40 for 20 minutes, self-pay. Membership is optional and never required. Priced for fairness, because we are not here to charge extortionate amounts for access to a doctor.
It means the diagnosis can usually be made from your history and photographs, and that treatment can be arranged safely without examining you. Where a condition is not marked treatable online, it is because examination is the diagnosis — listening to a chest, feeling an abdomen, examining an ear or a joint — or because a procedure or device is needed.
Yes, where there is a genuine bacterial infection — cellulitis, impetigo, bacterial urine infections, confirmed strep throat. We will also frequently tell you that you do not need one. Most sore throats, coughs, colds and earaches are viral, and an antibiotic gives you the side effects with none of the benefit.
If your problem turns out to be genuinely outside what we can do remotely, the doctor will tell you straight away, point you to the right service, and refund your fee in full. We would rather do that than fill twenty minutes to justify the charge.
Call 999 or go to A&E — do not book an online appointment and do not wait for a reply to an email. For urgent problems that are not emergencies, NHS 111 is available 24 hours a day, online or by phone, and can direct you to the right service.
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