Hansard

I congratulate Helen Eadie on securing the debate. She is very committed to the issue and has worked extremely hard over the years, as convener of the cross-party group on heart disease and stroke, to influence the thinking of Parliament and the Government. Today, she brings the Scottish campaign for cardiac rehabilitation to Parliament.

As we heard, the campaign is a collaboration between a number of significant voluntary organisations, including the British Heart Foundation and others that have been mentioned. The aim is to ensure that every suitable heart patient is given access to a rehabilitation programme. That makes sense, because people who undergo rehabilitation get better quicker. Rehabilitation can save and transform lives.

The campaign argues that patients should be offered alternative methods of rehabilitation, which might be based at home, in the community or in hospital, depending on where people are able to take part in programmes, and it argues that it is important to overcome barriers to participation. There might be barriers for people who live in deprived or remote and rural communities, because they might struggle to access services. I was struck by Dave Thompson’s description of inequity in services in his area. The campaign also calls for minimum standards and monitoring, as members have said.

We know that adopting such an approach to cardiac rehabilitation can transform lives and, at the same time, save money, which is no bad thing in a time of austerity. I understand from the campaign briefing that rehabilitation has reduced death from heart disease by more than a third in just over 10 years. That is a considerable achievement.

The campaign points out that rehabilitation can help to prevent the need for much more costly treatment. A heart bypass costs in excess of £5,000 whereas rehab costs less than £2,000. Cardiac rehabilitation has also cut readmissions to hospital by as much as 30 per cent. The figures make for interesting reading. Cardiac rehabilitation is clearly worth doing, whatever measure we use to consider its effects.

I visited a cardiac rehabilitation group in Dumbarton. The participants had nothing but praise for the physiotherapists and nurses who worked with them. There were a couple of grumbles about what the physios made patients do, but by and large everyone realised that they are fortunate to have good access to an excellent rehab service, which is not the case for everyone in Scotland.

When I met that bunch of people, I could not get over how full of life they were. They might all have had heart attacks, but that was not going to stop them. They were very much looking forward, and having great fun as they did so—the group was filled with laughter. I want that quality of cardiac rehabilitation not just for people in Dumbarton but for everyone in Scotland. The Government needs to spread good practice to every health board and every corner of the country.

I congratulate the NHS on what has already been achieved. The action plan is a positive step forward and staff in many areas have embraced it and are working to implement it. That is evident from the 60 per cent fall in the mortality rate for heart disease.

We know that we can do more and that we can accelerate the pace of change. Members of this Parliament do not often all sing from the same hymn sheet, but we are doing so today as we ask the Government to consider a HEAT target, accelerate the pace of change and ensure that monitoring arrangements are in place, so that the aims of the campaign can be met and cardiac rehabilitation services can improve not just in one or two areas but throughout the country. I hope that the minister will be able to tell us that that will happen.

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