What's the next DIY medical procedure NHS will have us performing on ourselves?

Ping! A text arrives from the doctor's surgery commanding me to take my blood pressure and submit the results asap. Must we do everything for ourselves now? Taking your blood pressure was once a job for a trained professional. But now it is one of those chores - like printing your own boarding pass, operating a self-service supermarket till and reading your gas meter - that has gone DIY.

First task was to find a blood pressure machine (it is now a must-have gizmo like a juicer or an air fryer) which I borrowed from a friend who dug out a dusty cardboard box from under the stairs.

"Don't know if it works," she said doubtfully. Still, it seemed to spring into life when I pressed the on button. I fastened the strap round my arm, pressed another button and the cuff started to inflate. That's always been a moment of slight anxiety. Supposing it went on squeezing ever tighter until my arm exploded?

Fortunately there was no malfunction.The reading suggested that as usual my blood pressure was text book perfect and I smugly pressed "submit" to the surgery where, I like to think, they were keenly awaiting my results, whooping and cheering as the data came through.

I wonder what will be the next medical procedure we'll have to perform on ourselves? It would be a big ask to expect anyone to perform a self-tonsillectomy, but lancing a boil might be doable.

DIY cervical smear tests have been trialled and "gave power to women" who were reluctant to come forward in person.

Personally I'd prefer it if someone who knew what they were doing swivelled the swab around.

The truth is that there is a fine line between the benefits of doing medical things to yourself (less hassle) and NHS cost cutting (slyly presented as giving "power" to the patient).

Yet you can see why the personal touch of a GP or practice nurse is becoming a luxury.

A report in the Journals of Gerontology found that those of us born in the 50s and 60s are living longer than our parents but are in poorer health.

Meanwhile, life expectancy has now stalled and - according to the University of Illinois in Chicago - "the vast majority of the population alive past the age of 60 is living on manufactured time".

That means we are dependent on pills and a variety of procedures to keep staggering on, living from one medical appointment to the next.

So yes, I can see I will always be doing my blood pressure now. I may invest in a scalpel, some surgical gloves and a set of scrubs.You never know.