Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Exclusive The majority of GPs are not complying with NICE advice that they should prescribe statins to more low-risk patients, a Pulse survey has revealed.
Two-thirds of GPs said they have not begun prescribing statins to patients who are newly eligible for the drugs since NICE lowered the risk threshold for primary prevention from a 10-year risk of 20% to 10%, in updated lipid guidance released over the summer.
The chair of the GPC prescribing committiee told Pulse there should be ‘no.. slavish devotion’ to guidelines, while GPs indicated they have ongoing doubts there is enough evidence that the benefits of statins outweigh the harms in lower-risk people, and concerns around the increased workload and ‘medicalisation’ of healthy people.
NICE pushed through the lower 10% threshold when it published revised lipid modification guidelines in July this year, despite strong objections from the GPC on the grounds it was not evidence-based and could lead to increased consultations and medicalisation of healthy people to the cost of more needy, unwell patients.
http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/20008226.article#.VEeEBPnF-Ag
(free registration)
Two-thirds of GPs said they have not begun prescribing statins to patients who are newly eligible for the drugs since NICE lowered the risk threshold for primary prevention from a 10-year risk of 20% to 10%, in updated lipid guidance released over the summer.
The chair of the GPC prescribing committiee told Pulse there should be ‘no.. slavish devotion’ to guidelines, while GPs indicated they have ongoing doubts there is enough evidence that the benefits of statins outweigh the harms in lower-risk people, and concerns around the increased workload and ‘medicalisation’ of healthy people.
NICE pushed through the lower 10% threshold when it published revised lipid modification guidelines in July this year, despite strong objections from the GPC on the grounds it was not evidence-based and could lead to increased consultations and medicalisation of healthy people to the cost of more needy, unwell patients.
http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/20008226.article#.VEeEBPnF-Ag
(free registration)