‘Rehab for all heart patients’ say health campaigners

MORE heart patients should benefit from cardiac rehabilitation, health campaigners have said.They made the plea after new figures showed just 3 per cent of eligible patients with heart failure were offered the treatment, compared with two-thirds who have had a heart attack or cardiac bypass surgery.

Across Scotland, a total of 65.2 per cent of heart attack patients were referred for cardiac rehabilitation, and 68.5 per cent of people who had bypass surgery.

But just 3.1 per cent of those with heart failure were referred for rehabilitation, along with only 7.4 per cent of those with unstable angina.

While 7,845 heart attack patients were referred for rehabilitation between April 2010 and March 2011, only 144 people with heart failure and 340 with unstable angina were put forward.

Charities the British Heart Foundation Scotland and Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland are now calling for more of these patents to benefit from the treatment, which they say saves lives.

Cardiac rehabilitation includes supervised exercise sessions along with education to help patients live as full and healthy a life as possible.