Cardiac rehabilitation

Welcome to our community cardiac rehabilitation page.

Here you will find information to support you on your own cardiac rehabilitation journey.

It features practical support, like our self-help educational resources. These can help you to manage your heart condition yourself. This includes:

Lifestyle changes
Risk factors of cardiovascular disease
Physical exercise advice

We are committed to advising and supporting you throughout your journey. This is alongside charities and other groups.

Watch this video from the British Heart Foundation to find out more about cardiac rehabilitation and the benefits of taking part.

We are a multi-specialist team:

Specialist cardiovascular nurses
Physiotherapists
Exercise professionals - who are BACPR (British Association for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation) trained
Clerical staff

We help you recover and return to your full life as quickly as possible.

We aim to deliver our service in a friendly, informative, holistic way. We place our patients and their families at the centre of everything we do.

We offer a programme tailored to you.

This includes:

Structured exercise programme.
Education session
Relaxation sessions

Cardiac rehabilitation aims to help you recover from your heart condition. We do this by empowering you to make healthier lifestyle changes. This reduces your risk of cardiovascular disease.

Our service is for anyone over the age of 18 who has a heart condition.

This includes:

Heart attack
Angioplasty
Coronary bypass graft
Heart failure

You can be referred by your cardiologist, GP or cardiac specialist nurse.

The benefits are:

Improves physical fitness, strength and general wellbeing
Helps you regain their confidence after a heart event
Increases confidence
Aids your recovery physically and psychologically
Reduces risk of further cardiac events
Helps patients to live longer
Helps patients who may be at risk of social isolation
Peer support
Helps your heart stay well
Helps you manage risk factors yourself

Phase 1

When you are discharged from hospital, you will be referred to our team.

Phase 2

One of our nurses will phone you within 3 working days of receiving your referral.

The nurse will:

Take detailed notes about your medical history
Explain your medication
Give you information and support following your heart event / surgery

We will invite you to have an assessment appointment. This can be in clinic or by phone. We may offer a home visit if you are housebound.

Phase 3

This is your comprehensive nursing assessment. We will discuss, explain and agree your programme.

Programmes are around 6 to 8 weeks. Usually, your programme starts 3 to 6 weeks after your heart event or heart surgery. It will be sooner if you have had an angioplasty. The specific time may change depending on your circumstances.

We will also give you advice and information on lifelong activity and risk factors.

Phase 4

This follows your cardiac rehab programme. It takes place in local leisure centres and community centres through an exercise on referral scheme. This can vary depending on where you live.

Group-based exercise and education classes

This is usually a 6-week programme, with 2 sessions a week. Most venues have no more than 15 patients in each session.

The classes are led by a trained cardiac rehabilitation nurse and a trained fitness instructor. Some venues also have a physiotherapist present.

Education sessions delivered are:

Dietician / diet talk / nutrition
Anatomy and physiology / risk factors
Medications / pharmacy
Benefits of exercise
Cardiology / cardiologist visit (North Tyneside)
Health psychology (North Tyneside)

North Tyneside has guest educational speakers in 2 venues. All patients from Northumberland or North Tyneside are welcome to attend.

We can deliver these via a video link. We are happy to facilitate this if you wanted to attend but may struggle with travel.

Your relatives are welcome to attend the educational talks. They can’t stay during the physical exercise classes for safety reasons.

You do have the option to only attend the educational talks. You can do this alongside your personalised home cardiac rehabilitation programme. We usually discuss this in your first assessment and tailor your rehab to what you want and need.

Supported self-managed programmes

This is for patients who can’t attend our group classes. This may be due to your work or personal commitments, or your preference.

You can discuss this with your cardiac rehabilitation nurse at your clinic appointment or home visit.

We offer these supported self-managed programmes: