Welcome to the Phase III Cardiac Rehabilitation Programme. We hope you will be able to attend the circuit classes twice a week over the next eight weeks. It is important to keep up your walking on the other days.

Lifestyle sessions

• The Heart and Coronary Heart Disease (Nurse)
• Physical Activity and the Next Step (Exercise Team)
• Cardiac Medication (Nurse)
• Stress and Relaxation (Two sessions; counsellor)
• Healthy Eating (Two sessions; one with a member of the Exercise team, one with a dietician)
• Breathlessness and Posture (Physiotherapist)

The lifestyle sessions are on a rolling programme. If you have to miss one, they will be repeated.

Please telephone the following number 0300 790 0273, if you are unable to attend a session or if there are adverse weather conditions, to confirm whether or not the classes will be running.

Useful information

• Clothing: Please wear tracksuit bottoms or loose fitting trousers with a light shirt or t-shirt. Trainers or flat-soled, non-slip shoes are ideal.
• Medication: Please let us know if you have changed your medication in any way, as certain tablets will have an effect on your pulse rate and blood pressure. It is also important to let us know if you have forgotten to take your medication.
• Try to avoid eating a large meal too soon before exercising, but a small snack an hour before is fine.
• If you are diabetic, we may ask you to test your blood sugar whilst you are at the exercise sessions.
• Water is always available during the classes, it is important to drink plenty when exercising, as dehydration causes the heart to work harder.
• Please avoid chewing gum while exercising. It can be extremely dangerous if inhaled.
• After the session, we strongly advise you to stay a short while after your class, perhaps have a cup of tea in the café. This is because people sometimes experience a drop in blood pressure up to 15 minutes after exercise. Although uncommon, we would rather you felt unwell here in the centre than in the car going home.
• At the end of your eight weeks we will ask you to attend for one last time for a final assessment. We will repeat all the ‘tests’ we did on your induction and tell you all about the on-going classes that are running in your area, or refer you for a gym-based programme at the Stour Centre.
• Please be aware that if you tell a member of staff something that we feel will harm your health we have a duty to pass this information on to other relevant professionals involved in your care.

In line with Kent Community Health’s NHS Trusts policy on information governance, your personal details are kept confidential at all times. You have the right to request for information to be passed to other relevant services regarding your care unless there is good reason why this cannot happen, in which case this would be fully explained.