At Westway Medical Centre, we regularly review your record to ensure that we are offering you the best possible care. If you have received a notification regarding the above it is because you have experienced/have a diagnosis of one of the following but are not taking cholesterol lowering therapy
· Heart disease
· Peripheral arterial disease
· Stroke/Transient Ischaemic Attack (TIA)
· Chronic kidney disease
Why is this important?
Since you fall into one of the above categories, you would significantly benefit from lowering your cholesterol. High cholesterol is one of the biggest risk factors for cardio-vascular disease which causes 25% of all deaths in the UK - many prematurely.
Our aim is to ensure that all patients with one of the above conditions receives treatment to reduce cholesterol in line with National guidelines, summarised here:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/aac/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2020/04/National-Guidance-for-Lipid-Management-Prevention-Dec-2022.pdf
Can you achieve this with healthy diet and exercise?
Although this is very important for healthy living, research demonstrates diet is not enough. Indeed in your case the impact of a raised cholesterol is already taking its toll.
A statin has the best evidence to reduce premature death and disability by reducing heart attacks, heart failure, stroke and dementia.
The statin of choice is ATORVASTATIN as it is the best tolerated statin. 9/10 of patients will not experience any side effects. The most common side effect is muscle ache where a reduced dose usually resolves the issue. Repeat bloods at 3 months are required to check impact.
For more information on statins check out: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/statins/
If you haven’t been able to tolerate statins in the past or aren’t keen on taking a statin, we can prescribe an alternative medication such as EZETIMIBE. Ezetimibe is well tolerated by 99/100 of takers. The remaining 1/100 of patients may experience mild gastrointestinal side effects. It has no contraindications, an excellent safety record and requires no monitoring.
For more information on ezetimibe: https://www.nhs.uk/medicines/ezetimibe/about-ezetimibe/
Next steps
There are several options for you to choose from which include the following:
1. I am happy to trial atorvastatin and I am happy for my community pharmacist to counsel me on this medication.
2. I am happy to trial ezetimibe and I am happy for my community pharmacist to counsel me on this medication.
3. I would like to book a telephone consultation with a clinician to discuss further.
4. I do not wish to trial any cholesterol lowering medication.
We would appreciate it if you could advise us which option you decide on within the next two weeks. This can be done by replying directly via text message or contacting reception on 0151 526 1121 or gp.n84025@nhs.net.
We look forward to hearing from you soon.
Please note, one of our admin team will be in touch to follow up from your text invite if we do not receive a response from you in the next 2 weeks.
