Family doctors would be required to identify patients most at risk of developing heart disease or stroke, under draft guidance published today by the government's treatment watchdog.

Around four million men and one million women in Britain are thought to fall into the risk category, according to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice).

Under proposals published by the organisation, GPs would be required to scour surgery records and identify such patients so as to take appropriate action to combat the risk of their health failing.

Factors to be taken into account by doctors in identifying the likelihood of whether a patient is at risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) would include their age and whether they had raised blood pressure or suffered from obesity.

Those found to have a 20 per cent or more risk of developing heart disease within ten years should be offered drugs which cut cholesterol, Nice's draft guidelines recommend.

Lifestyle changes, such as diet alterations and taking regular exercise, would also be suggested to patients at risk of CVD.

Commenting on the draft guidelines, which will be open for consultation until August 22nd, Nice director Gillian Leng stressed that a national screening programme was not being proposed.

"What it does recommend is that a systematic strategy should be used at local primary care level to identify individuals likely to be at high risk of developing CVD and that individuals should be prioritised for assessment based upon an estimate of their CVD risk," she said.

The British Heart Foundation (BHF), which says that each year over 117,000 people in the UK die from coronary heart disease, the main form of CVD, welcomed the guidance as a "pragmatic approach" to combating the problem.

"These draft guidelines are a pragmatic attempt at dealing with the major killer of our age: heart and circulatory disease," said BHF medical director professor Peter Weissberg.

"Rather than embarking on any complex screening programme, we agree it makes sense to ask GPs to systematically check their patient records to identify those likely to be at most risk and then invite those people in for an assessment," he added.

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