Free Style Optium Neo Blood Glucose Monitor

About Home Health Care

Home Health Care is the equipment and supplies side of the pharmacy rather than the medicine side. The largest part is medical essentials — monitoring devices, first-aid supplies, supports and braces, consumables such as dressings and gloves, and adult continence products. Alongside those sit home beauty devices and a smaller wellness and comfort section.

Before you buy a device

• Check what the device needs to keep working: batteries, cuffs, probe covers, test strips or replacement filters. The running cost is often the larger one.
• Blood-pressure monitors are sized by arm circumference, and a cuff that does not fit gives readings that are wrong rather than readings that are missing. Measure first.
• Supports and braces are sized by measurement, not by clothing size, and left and right are usually not interchangeable.
• Consumables carry expiry dates and sterile packaging. Check both, and restock a first-aid kit by date rather than by how full it looks.

A device you use at home measures or supports — it does not diagnose. A reading that worries you is a reason to speak to a doctor, not a reason to buy a second device. If you are choosing equipment for someone recovering at home or living with a long-term condition, our pharmacist can help you match it to what has actually been advised.