BOLTON doctors are setting up a task force of GPs to tackle deaths from heart attacks in the south of the town -- which has one of the highest rates in the country.

People in Farnworth, Kearsley, Deane, Daubhill and Derby have a third higher risk of death from heart attacks than the rest of the UK.

The Bolton South-east Primary Care Group (PCG) -- made up of GPs and community nurses -- is charged with bringing the rate of fatal heart attacks down to "at least" the national average.

The task force will meet to consider a draft implementation plan on coronary heart disease and aims to prioritise the work programme for Bolton South-east's doctors.

A seminar is also to be held in December or the New Year to set out the aims of the national service framework -- which gives ways GPs can improve their efforts to reduce the numbers of patients in the "at risk" groups.

At a meeting of the PCG, doctors agreed that there was much work needed to persuade people to take up healthier life styles.

They want folk to cut down on smoking and to improve their diet as well as take more exercise.

They said that certain groups of people, in particular the Asian population, were genetically more prone to heart disease.

Parts of Bolton South East have a high population of Asians -- one GP's surgery in the area has 95 pe rcent of patients from the Asian community.

Imbalance

Chairman of Bolton South-east PCG, Ian Caldwell said: "We have a considerable amount of work to do to reduce this imbalance. We are proposing to establish yet another task group to complement the one in Bolton North-east which has a lead in implementing the local work on the National Service Framework.

"Bolton South-east has the highest rates of mortality for coronary heart disease within the borough, which in turn has one of the highest rates in the North-west, which has one of the highest rates in the country."

The task force is likely to be made up of GPs who will identify the main objectives needed to bring down the numbers of deaths from heart disease.

The Bolton Evening News reported when it was announced earlier this year that the North-west was due to receive an extra £3 million to cut deaths from heart disease.

Health Secretary Alan Milburn promised a network of fast track heart and chest clinics to ensure people with angina and other heart complaints are seen by a specialist within two weeks of seeing their GP.

In the last two years some 17,160 people in the North-west died of heart disease, the highest total for any regional office in the country.

And in July, the BEN also reported that the Royal Bolton Hospital was one of the worst places in the country for heart attack deaths.

More people die in the Royal Bolton Hospital than any other similar hospital after being admitted with a heart attack.