PATIENTS are dying unnecessarily because GPs are failing to carry out basic tests, according to a top heart specialist.

Professor Alastair Hall told an audience at North Tees General Hospital, Stockton, that GPs must offer cholesterol tests to patients with a family history of heart disease.

Every year, heart disease kills 30,000 people under 65 and Prof Hall believes many of those deaths could be prevented if family doctors were more active in identifying those at risk.

Prof Hall said too many patients were being told that cholesterol tests were unnecessary, when the simple test could help to save their life.

"We can't just fob patients off," he said.

"This is happening every day in this region. It is one simple question the GP needs to ask - 'tell me about your family's history of heart disease'."

The professor of cardiology, who is based in Leeds, is in the North-East to promote the world's biggest study into families with a history of heart disease.

The British Heart Foundation is backing the study, which aims to recruit 2,000 sets of brothers and sisters who have had heart attacks before reaching the age of 65, to improve our understanding of how genetic factors influence heart disease - and lead to better treatment in future.

Since the roadshow set off from London two months ago the team has taken more than 12,000 calls.

Yesterday, the roadshow bus was in Stockton and Darlington. Today, it is in Newcastle.

"We have now got about 1,500 families for the study and we would like another 200 from the North-East," said Prof Hall.

His views on the importance of cholesterol tests were endorsed by North Tees consultant cardiologist Dr Roger Smith, who said patients should insist on cholesterol tests for members for their family if there was a history of heart disease.

"We do get feedback that patients have been told it is not necessary," he said.

Dr Brian Posner, a spokesman for GPs in Sunderland, said he agreed that in cases where there is a strong history of heart disease, family members should be offered such tests.

But the idea that cholesterol tests should be given to anyone who asked for one was not a sensible use of scarce NHS resources, he said.

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