THE STATE OF CARDIAC REHAB IN THE UK
The NACR (National Audit of Cardiac Rehabilitation) releases an annual “Quality and Outcomes Report” and this week, I’m going to share some of the headline findings about the state of Cardiac Rehab in the UK.
The uptake is still pre-Covid level.
Approximately 50% of patients who were eligible to attend cardiac rehab did attend during pre-Covid times. Although there have been some recovery post-Covid numbers in cardiac rehab, it remains at 73.6% of pre-Covid levels so there’s lots of work to be done!
Everyone is still online!
This is certainly a trend here a CP+R however, it’s a trend that’s here to stay as home-based training continues to dominate the service with
70% of people across the UK performing their rehab from the comfort of their own home.
Programmes are struggling for staffs.
65% of programmes experienced staff loss as staff decided either to retire or not to return post covid. Furthermore, unfortunately, only 50% of staff posts have been able to be replaced leaving a fairly significant gap in its place which is one factor contributing to the dip in patient numbers.
Is UK Cardiac Rehab guessing rather than assessing?
The percentage of patients performing an exercise test has never been great, with only 48% of patients having one in 2018. However, this has suffered significantly in recent years. The figures below, taken from the report, show that currently only 25% of patients had an exercise test recorded at baseline and this is particularly an issue in those undertaking home-based rehab where levels are 21.2%.
Exercise testing is seen as a core component in national and international cardiac rehab guidelines and not having an exercise test is also associated with an increased likelihood of life-threatening advert events.
Stats that fuel our mission!
I’m aware that these stats make pretty bleak reading, and it feels like a fairly make or break few years in UK Cardiac Rehab alongside the NHS as a whole.
It’s something that only fuels our fire and company mission of ‘Rehabilitating Cardiac Rehab’ and a reminder that what we’re trying to do isn’t just hard, but absolutely necessary for the health of millions!