Blood Pressure Court Proposed

By Alison Hymes

Doctors have noted that many of their patients with high blood pressure fail to take their prescribed medications. Some complain of side effects, some of the expense, some just do not have the insight to foresee the consequences of their failure to take their meds. This has serious consequences for high blood pressure patients, their families and for society. Patients can have strokes or kidney failure as a result of their non-compliance with treatment and the burden is left on their families and society to take care of them when these tragedies are easily preventable if high blood pressure patients would just comply with their doctors' instructions.

Our nursing homes and Emergency Rooms are becoming more and more crowded with these non-compliant high blood pressure patients, putting a burden and a danger on all of the rest of us. On the road, non-compliant high blood pressure patients are even more dangerous to themselves and others as they may have a stroke and pass out at the wheel, killing or injuring themselves and/or innocent other drivers and passengers. E. Fullofit Whig has estimated that there are 1,000 preventable deaths by car accidents caused by non-compliant blood pressure patients each year. When will society put an end to this plague?

Researcher Hookeruser Votrehan has studied this tragic and difficult problem and come up with a solution that will be helpful to the non-compliant patient, their families and society. He has proposed HIgh Blood Pressure Courts, similar to Drug Courts for substance abusers but with an emphasis on getting patients to take their blood pressure medications rather than on getting drug users to stop using illegal substances. Patients who persist in being non-compliant could be taken to court by their doctors or family members or even roommates or landlords who are aware of their lack of insight and a judge would order them to take their medication and submit to random blood pressure screenings to ensure that they are in fact complying with the judge's order. Patients found to be out of compliance will be admitted to a nursing home for a short stay to help them gain insight into what awaits them if they do not become compliant with their treatment.