Abstract

Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is a cost-effective, life-enhancing and life-saving treatment for patients recovering from cardiac illness—from myocardial infarction, revascularisation, angina, heart failure, etc. Its main aims are to help the patient to recover as quickly and completely as possible and then to reduce to a minimum the chance of recurrence of the cardiac illness—it should be an integral step in the management of the patient’s condition. Despite the inclusion of CR in the National Service Framework for coronary heart disease only a minority of cardiac patients join CR programmes. Suggestions are made for increasing the uptake.