A HEART specialist has urged North-East people to have their cholesterol levels checked, after a survey revealed that very few people at risk of heart disease are being prescribed potentially life-saving drugs.

Only three per cent of people at high risk of developing heart disease are being given a class of drugs called statins, according to figures published today.

Experts said that 7,000 heart attacks and 2,500 strokes, many of them fatal, could be prevented each year if more people were given statin drugs.

Dr Rodney Bexton, a consultant cardiologist at The Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, said it was particularly important to check cholesterol in the North-East, where levels tended to be higher than in the South.

"The problem is, we only see the tip of the iceberg. We only see people who have a problem. We are not seeing the other 100,000 people in the community who would benefit," said Mr Bexton.

"People need to know what their cholesterol level is and GPs need to act on it."

The study, in the British Medical Journal, said the low rates of treatment were "worrisome" and called for more patients to be given the drugs.

Statins have been shown to significantly reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

National guidelines state that the expensive drugs should be restricted to people at the highest risk of coronary heart disease or with a history of the condition.

Researchers, who studied the cases of more than 13,000 people in England, found that one in four had "higher than ideal" levels of cholesterol, but just two per cent were taking dugs to combat the problem.