Sphygmomanometer calibration: a survey of one inner-city primary care group

Sphygmomanometers are the cornerstone of blood pressure management and yet there is no national standard for the regulation of this equipment in the U K. It is known that these machines may often be inaccurate, particularly th ose used in the community. We embarked upon a survey of all sphygmomanomete rs in current use in one inner city primary care group. Contrary to our ini tial hypothesis, inaccuracy rates were lower than in other reported communi ty surveys with 2.3% of mercury and 14.8% of anaeroid sphygmomanometers fai ling the test. Surprisingly, inaccurate machines did not cluster in the les s well developed practices. The implication is that ail practices need to h ave procedures in place for the regular calibration of their sphygmomanomet ers.