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National heart charity thanks UHNM Cardiac Rehab team for outstanding lockdown care

UHNM’s cardiac rehab team have won a national award for their outstanding service to heart patients. 

During lockdown the team launched an innovative live-stream exercise programme which enabled people to continue with rehabilitation from the safety of their own homes. More than 40,000 people were able to access the sessions, which were facilitated in conjunction with UK heart failure charity Pumping Marvellous. The charity has now given the team the Special Recognition Award for their contribution to heart care.

Sonya Lockett, Service Lead for Cardiac Rehabilitation at UHNM, said: “What we have developed here at UHNM is unique. At the moment heart failure patients are not able to access rehabilitation services in the same way due to government restrictions. Through our live stream platforms, we embraced and amplified the usual work of the team by bringing cardiac rehab into the living rooms of patients with heart failure so that they could continue their care in a safe and controlled manner.

UHNM’s cardiac rehab team

“This award acknowledges the value that our team brings to the treatment of heart failure, improving patient outcomes throughout the UK. Our work is particularly pertinent in 2020, when many heart failure patients have found themselves in the most challenging of circumstances. We’re so pleased to receive the award and we’ve had some excellent feedback from the Pumping Marvellous team about the value patients place on these sessions.”

Heart failure is a life-threatening condition in which the heart cannot pump enough blood around the body. It affects approximately 1 million people in the UK and 64 million people worldwide. It is a chronic disease where around half of patients will die within five years of diagnosis.

To date, UHNM’s cardiac rehab team have live-streamed 38 exercise sessions and will continue to support the project and the heart failure community throughout the coming year.

The Pumping Marvellous Foundation is the UK’s patient-led heart failure charity.

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