Dear patient

As part of a national NHS effort to proactively identify and treat patients at risk of suffering heart attacks or strokes over the next 10 years, we regularly use patients' records to calculate their individual risk. This is a standard national procedure, known as QRISK (see the suggested links below for more information), which takes account of your age, family history, gender, blood pressure readings, smoking status, whether you are diabetic or not, and your cholesterol and lipid results.

Using this data, your suggested risk of having a heart attack or stroke over the next 10 years has come out at above 20%, i.e. more than 1 in 5. At this level we would actively encourage consideration of a medication that will lower cholesterol known as a statin alongside other ways of reducing risk such as diet, regular exercise, giving up smoking, controlling diabetes and controlling blood pressure.

We would be grateful if you could make use of the links below to learn more about the benefits and drawbacks of statins, as well as the more general information on preventing cardiovascular disease. There is also a link below to the British Heart Foundation’s excellent publication on reducing cholesterol without using medication.

Once you have had a chance to consider the information available, please make a routine telephone appointment with a Practice Nurse of your choice. This will enable us to have a discussion together about whether statin medication would be the right course of action for you, and what other actions me help to reduce your risk.

I hope this information meets with your approval and we look forward to speaking with you.

Yours sincerely


Stewart Medical Centre



Dr Justin R.A. Walker Dr Christopher I. Harvey Dr Katherine Brennan Dr Georgina Forbes

Practice Business Manager: Graham Chipp Assistant Practice Manager: Amy Smith

Dr Clara Hockenhull Dr Claire Hayes Dr Lisa Kozakis Dr Kate Reynolds

Website: stewartmc.nhs.uk

Useful websites to find out more about QRISK, Statins and Lowering your Risk of Heart Disease:

Patient.co.uk – Information on QRISK https://patient.info/heart-health/cardiovascular-disease-atheroma/cardiovascular-health-risk-assessment

Patient.co.uk - Statins https://patient.info/heart-health/high-cholesterol/statins-and-other-lipid-lowering-medicines

Patient.co.uk – Cardiovascular Disease - Atheroma https://patient.info/heart-health/cardiovascular-disease-atheroma

British Heart Foundation – Risk Factors for Heart Disease https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/risk-factors

British Heart Foundation – Risk Factors for Heart Disease https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/publications/heart-conditions/reducing-your-blood-cholesterol

For those without internet access, you can telephone the British Heart Foundation 'Heart Helpline' for further information on 0300 330 3311 Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm (landline costs apply).