Practice name and address
Partner’s names
Date
Patient name and address
Dear xxxxxxx
Change to your Cholesterol Reducing Medication (Statin)
Your local NHS is under continual pressure to provide a wide range of increasingly complex
services to patients from its budget. Regular reviews must take place to ensure that best use
is made of the money spent on medicines, without reducing the quality of the treatment
patients receive. If more money is spent on medicines than is available, the extra money has
to come from other areas of healthcare.
You are currently taking rosuvastatin (Crestor®) tablets which belongs to a class of
medicines called statins. We have decided to change your prescription to another statin
called atorvastatin. Both atorvastatin and rosuvastatin have a similar range of effects as
they are the same type of medicine (statins). Atorvastatin has been shown to reduce
cholesterol and to reduce the risk of having a heart attack or stroke in people with a high
risk. Atorvastatin is substantially a lower cost to the NHS than rosuvastatin.
With this in mind your prescription will be changed from your next repeat as follows:
Current Prescription
New Prescription
Rosuvastatin xx mg tablets – Take xx
tablet at night
Atorvastatin xx mg tablets – Take xx
tablet at night
You will notice that the tablet strength may not be the same as it varies between different
statins in order to get a similar amount of cholesterol lowering.
You do not need to do anything else; you will see the change on your next repeat
prescription. Until then, please continue to finish your existing supply of rosuvastatin tablets
before starting the atorvastatin tablets.
You are unlikely to notice any difference with this change. If you have any questions
regarding the change, or if you notice any side-effects (inform your GP promptly if you
experience unexplained muscle pain, tenderness or weakness, a rare side effect of all
statins) with the atorvastatin tablets, then please contact the surgery or the pharmacy where
you have your prescriptions dispensed.
We would like you to have a blood test to check your cholesterol level and liver function
approximately 8 -12 weeks after starting the atorvastatin.
Yours sincerely
On Behalf of the GPs at xxxxxxx Surgery