1.5 million more eligible for NHS statins

If your GP wants to prescribe you statins and has not been able to, it might be worth making a new appointment.

Under the latest guidance form the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), an estimated 1.5 million new patients in England and Wales are expected to be eligible for these cholesterol-reducing drugs.

GPs are being asked to use computers to trawl through patient records to pick out 'high-risk' patients - those aged 40 to 75 years who are likely to be at high risk of having a heart attack or stroke within the next 10 years. The GP may then prescribe simvastatin, the cheapest of the statins.

NICE reckon that this 'systematic identification' of those at risk will prevent 15,000 heart attacks and strokes every year.

Currently some 4m people in England and Wales are taking statins. You're not obliged to join them. Like all drugs they do have side-effects which you should discuss with your doctor first.

• Let us know if you've had any experience of using ststins or difficulties getting them prescribed.