Primary care resource centre
If you work in Primary Care, this area will give you information and resources to help you manage your patients who have altered lipid profiles. You can also download the below guidance from NHS England to support your practice and decision-making.
Lipid Management Pathway Statin Intolerance Pathway Child-Parent Screening Service
Familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH)
FH affects around 1 in 250 people in the UK and can lead to premature coronary heart disease.
Practical steps you can take:
- Review all patients with a clinical diagnosis of FH
- Have they been genetically confirmed? If not, check against diagnostic criteria and refer to your local lipid clinic for genetic testing
Review all patients who have ever had a total cholesterol above 9mmol/l - If they don't already have a diagnosis of FH, refer to your local lipid clinic after excluding secondary causes
Review all patients who have ever had a total cholesterol above 7.5mmol/l - Assess patients against diagnostic criteria after excluding secondary causes, listed below
Secondary causes of high cholesterol
Common medications
- Diuretics
- Corticosteroids
- Immunosuppressants
- Anti-retroviral drugs
- Retinoids
- Oral oestrogen
- Beta-blockers
- Antidepressants
- Anticonvulsants
Health and other conditions
- Undiagnosed or poorly controlled Type 2 diabetes
- Hypothyroidism
- Menopause
- Pregnancy
- Chronic kidney disease
- Nephrotic syndrome
- Cholestasis
- Gout
Read about the new pilot screening programme to identify children with FH.
NHS Long Term Plan
The NHS Long Term Plan, launched in 2019, sets out bold ambitions to tackle cardiovascular disease.
Key elements for lipids/CVD:
- Prevent over 150,000 heart attacks and strokes within 10 years
- Find 25% of people with familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) within 5 years
- Launch the CVD PREVENT national audit to support continuous clinical improvement
CVDPREVENT is a national primary care audit that automatically extracts routinely-held GP data covering diagnosis and management of six high-risk conditions that cause stroke, heart attack and dementia:
Atrial fibrillation (AF), High Blood Pressure, High Cholesterol, Diabetes, Non-diabetic Hyperglycaemia, Chronic Kidney Disease.
Key principles and benefits
Helps to support the ambition laid out in the NHS Long Term Plan to prevent 150,000 heart attacks and strokes over the next 10 years.
The audit asserts zero additional burden on practices.
Data on health inequalities and gaps in care will be highlighted to help support improvements in local practice.
The first CVDPREVENT Annual Audit Report and Data and Improvement Tool is now published by NHS Benchmarking Network. This national primary care audit has been a large, collaborative piece of work that we’re proud to support, commissioned as a response to the national aims of the NHS Long Term Plan and CVD prevention ambitions. The report is a first step toward understanding health inequalities in conditions and diagnoses, and to understand the variation across geographies and key indicators.
CDRC
The Clinical Digital Resource Collaborative (CDRC) is an NHS-funded, digital resource that enables individuals and organisations to deliver gold-standard patient care efficiently.
Primary care key benefits:
Integrated digital resources for SystmOne and EMIS
Quick identification of patients who are likely to benefit from a change in clinical management
More accurate data for QOF and QASI reporting
Examples of best practice
For this section, we've pulled together some examples of best practice. If you'd like to share examples from your area, please get in touch.
West Yorkshire & Harrogate Healthy Hearts
Clinical system searches and treatment guidance
Example treatment options and process