Cardiac Rehabilitation

Cardiac rehabilitation is a medically supervised programme of exercise training, education and psychological support for people recovering from a heart attack, stent, heart surgery or living with heart failure. It is delivered by a team of cardiologists, physiotherapists, nurses, dietitians and psychologists.

It is one of the most strongly evidence-based treatments in cardiology: it reduces hospital readmissions and cardiovascular deaths and improves fitness, mood and confidence. The catch is that it works through repetition over 8 to 12 weeks or longer, so it has to take place where you live.

Conditions this service looks after

• Recovery after a heart attack
• After coronary angioplasty and stenting
• After bypass or heart valve surgery
• Stable chronic heart failure
• Stable angina
• After pacemaker, ICD or resynchronisation device implantation
• After heart transplantation or ventricular assist device surgery
• Peripheral arterial disease with claudication

Tests you may be offered

• Baseline clinical review: Symptoms, wound healing, medicines, blood pressure and resting ECG before any exercise is prescribed.
• Exercise test or cardiopulmonary exercise test: Sets safe training heart rate zones and detects exercise-induced ischaemia or arrhythmia.
• Six-minute walk test: A simple measure of functional capacity, repeated to show progress.
• Echocardiography: Pumping function, which determines the risk category and level of supervision.
• Risk factor bloods: Lipids, HbA1c and kidney function to set targets.
• Anxiety, depression and quality of life questionnaires: Low mood is common after cardiac events and affects recovery.

Treatments available

• Phase 1: inpatient mobilisation: Breathing exercises, sitting out and walking on the ward in the days after an event or operation.
• Phase 2: supervised outpatient training: Two or three sessions a week for 8 to 12 weeks of monitored aerobic and light resistance exercise.
• Phase 3: long-term maintenance: Independent or community-based exercise for life.
• Education: Understanding your condition, medicines, warning symptoms and sternal precautions after surgery.
• Dietary counselling and weight management: Practical changes towards a Mediterranean-style pattern.
• Smoking cessation and psychological support: Medication and counselling, stress management, and advice on return to work, driving and sex.
• Home-based and tele-rehabilitation: Structured programmes with remote monitoring, which achieve results similar to centre-based programmes for low-risk patients.

When to ask for a specialist opinion

• You have had a heart attack, stent or heart operation and were not offered a programme
• You feel anxious about exerting yourself after a cardiac event
• You have heart failure and your stamina is declining
• Your risk factors remain uncontrolled months after treatment
• You are unsure how much exercise is safe for you

Travelling to Türkiye for this care

If you have heart surgery or a stent procedure abroad, phase 1 rehabilitation starts in hospital, and before flying home you can have an exercise assessment and receive a written, individual training prescription with heart rate zones. The main 8 to 12 week phase cannot be compressed into a trip. Arrange a local or home-based programme in advance and hand over the discharge report to that team.

Send your reports, scans and a short history and a Clinic-Y coordinator replies within 24 hours with suitable teams and written, all-inclusive proposals side by side. Reviewing your case is free.

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