St Mary’s Launch Cardiac Rehabilitation Community Programme

Staff on the BSc Physiotherapy programme at St Mary’s University, Twickenham have launched Phase three Cardiac Rehabilitation (CR) classes in Partnership with Hounslow and Richmond Community Healthcare (HRCH).

The classes are run by Rebecca Hall the Clinical Lead of Cardiac Rehabilitation Services at HRCH and Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy at St Mary’s, with the support of students from the BSc and MSc Physiotherapy programmes.

The students also held a walkathon and raised over £300 which was used to purchase exercise and monitoring equipment.

Each class runs for up to one hour and 30 minutes, consisting of a brief assessment, warm up, interval based conditioning session and a cool down. Patients are monitored throughout the class in terms of their heart rate and level of exertion and a strong emphasis is put on the patients developing an understanding of how to monitor their own level of exertion.

Upon completion of the classes, patients will be reviewed by the CR service and potentially referred or signposted to Phase four Cardiac Rehab or other suitable exercise schemes as appropriate.

The classes have been offered to those referred to the HRCH Cardiac Rehab Service, having undergone a cardiac event and/or procedure with the aim supporting them in returning to physical activity and building on their exercise tolerance as well as their confidence to exercise, in a safe and monitored environment.

All patients had been previously assessed by a member of the CR Service and will be reviewed by the service following completion of classes.

Senior Lecturer and Clinical Specialist in Physiotherapy at St Mary’s, Rebecca Hall said “HRCH had not been able to offer CR Classes to patients since March 2020 due to Covid-19 restrictions and so this link with St Mary’s has not only allowed us to provide a vital element of the CR Service once again but has also enabled the provision of student placements and hopefully helped in paving the way for further expansion”.

Find out more on the Cardiac Rehabilitation Services website