Mr. Mark O'Donnell:

I think it would be. On that type of screening and some of the other checks we do as part of community health checks, these are simple diagnostic tools, and that is one of the great things about it. There is no expensive equipment required or lengthy process. They can be done on the spot and are simple checks. It would be absolutely fantastic to roll out standard blood pressure checks for people over the age of 45. There are also other ways to do it. We do many of our health checks in partnership with other organisations such as pharmacists, where people can go into their pharmacies and do not have to go the GP to get the check.

One of the other initiatives we had that worked well is a partnership with Mayo library service to have blood pressure monitors available for lending from public libraries. Somebody can go in and borrow a blood pressure monitor for a week and check their blood pressure over a number of days. That project is at a small scale, with three library branches participating. There are 330 library branches across the country.

Those sort of initiatives, where we take community healthcare and put it in public and community settings, is where we will get much benefit.