"I feel I am being ejected from NHS care"

My blood pressure is making it too dangerous to investigate my increasing medical conditions, yet the consultants assessing my blood pressure identify it as completely normal.

Last year I found myself in A&E three times for severe digestive pain and vomiting. From those visits I ended up in the AAU, CAU and SAU. On one visit, they restored my BP from dangerously low to a normal level and discharged me (for the abnormal response to return the next day). Another visit provided me with an appointment to return for an endoscopy. That investigation could not be completed due to dangerously high BP. 

Another appointment for a repeat breathing on exertion test, which had previously highlighted an abnormal heart response, was also cancelled due to dangerously high BP. So the abnormal heart response had to be left un-investigated at that point.

My GP, finding my condition beyond his level of experience, sent me into AAU to have my strange blood pressure checked, in the hope that Cardiology could check it out. In AAU, a doctor arranged for a 24hr blood pressure measurement and after reviewing the results said that my blood pressure was completely normal, and was the same as in the previous 24hr measurement a few years ago. The dangerous highs were put down to Severe White Coat Hypertension and a note would be added to my medical record to say so.

That previous 24hr blood pressure test was carried out by a doctor in Endocrinology as a part of another investigation where they say that should all your hormonal profile be normal, they plan to refer me on to cardiology for their specialist input into as to what anti-hypertensive medications would be best. When the results from that hormonal profile came back, they were normal, but I was never sent on to Cardiology. That first 24 hours BP test gave a high of 213/120 and a low of 70/45 which is far from normal. In fact, an attempt before that to fit me with a 24hr monitor, was cancelled due to dangerously high BP (are you following this pattern?).

With the doctor's reassurance that I had completely normal blood pressure and that simply having white coat hypertension should not lead to procedures being cancelled, I made a request to have the breathing on exertion test rescheduled as it was now confirmed to be safe to proceed with, and I wanted to see if the previously noted Abnormal Heart Response was still present.

In December 2025 the breathing on exertion test was rescheduled and after checking, double checking and trying different blood pressure machines with me sitting in different locations, it was not possible to find a combination that would provide a blood pressure recording that assured the Respiratory team that I could safely proceed. Instead I was assessed with a walking test, which did not involve heart monitoring, so that Abnormal Heart Response detected during the Breathing on Exertion test, has still not been re-evaluated, despite the extreme efforts of the Respiratory team to try to carry it out.

The story above is not the only time. It has happened several times before and appears to be getting much worse with time. My blood pressure response is now becoming so acute it is preventing my other long term conditions and newer developing conditions from being investigated. I feel I am being ejected from NHS care, because of a blood pressure problem.

It can't be both. Either my blood pressure is worryingly abnormal and needs to be corrected, or it is normal and all of the medical investigations into my other conditions can safely go ahead. Which one is it?

This is not something that can be corrected by the patient relations (complaints) team as they failed to help me the last time I contacted them. 

If NHS Forth Valley hospital management are prepared to help fix this array of issues, and are happy that the outcome is updated here for others to see, then I would welcome their contribution. Without that, this will simply be confirmation to others going through a similar experience, that they are not the only one but help to fix it is not available.