blood pressure. Despite the fact that we are getting more unhealthy as a nation, people are now suffering fewer heart attacks thanks to medication. However, physical fitness is still the best way to reduce heart disease. Staywell candidates are patients referred by their GPs, and are
Plugging a gap: Gyms could cater for those graduating from cardiac rehab schemes
deemed to be at high risk of developing coronary disease. After a full assessment, including exercise testing, they go through a 10-week programme of graduated exercise and education, very similar to that used for cardiac patients. At the end of the course, the assessment is repeated to measure effectiveness.
What qualifications do staff need? Our instructors need to be qualified according to the standards set out by the British Association for Cardiac Rehabilitation. We also have nurses and physios on-site.
How do you involve spouses and families? We used to encourage spouses to join in the programme, but the scheme is too overloaded now so we’ve had to stop that. We do encourage them to join us for the lectures we run in nutrition, stress management and relaxation, though, and also encourage them to join the post-graduate exercise.
Would you like to see more facilities like this? When we started there were very few, but now every hospital with cardiac patients runs a cardiac rehabilitation programme. However, they are mostly inadequate, as they can only deal
march 2011 © cybertrek 2011
with a small percentage of eligible patients. We used to run the national audit and, in 2000, no more than 30 per cent of eligible patients in the UK had access to cardiac rehab programmes. The ideal place to run a cardiac rehab
programme is not in the hospital – as is often done – but in a sports centre. There are relatively few free-standing cardiac rehab facilities and I like the idea of having them in community exercise facilities. That’s what I would like to see more of.
How can the fitness industry get involved? The fitness industry has a big role to play. There’s currently not good follow-up for people who have been through cardiac rehab programmes and the fitness industry could plug that gap. The instructors will need to be trained though, and local cardiac rehab co-ordinators should be informed so that they can refer graduates on once they’ve finished their supervised programmes.
What are the risks in running cardiac rehab programmes? There is the risk of cardiac arrest, but I can only think of about six people who had cardiac arrests during 30 years and there weren’t any deaths. However, you do have to make sure you have qualified staff and defibrillators on-site.
What has been the high point of your career? I chaired the committee that set up the British Association of Cardiac Rehabilitation. It’s now a very good organisation indeed and does a lot of very good work.
Read Health Club Management online at
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital 49
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