Thousands of women are missing out on cardiac rehabilitation services in the UK, a report shows today.
A smaller proportion of female than male patients receive these services following heart attack, angioplasty or bypass surgery, according an audit of services.
The audit found that about 14,000 women received cardiac rehabilitation in 2013-14 out of 38,500 eligible patients.
Some 52% of male patients receive the service – suggesting that equality would mean another 5,500 women undertaking rehabilitation.
The Foundation says that in some parts of England patients wait seven weeks for the service after a heart attack – although official advice is that it should start within 28 days.
The figures come from the National Audit of Cardiac Rehabilitation, which has data from 164 centres in England and from Wales and Northern Ireland.
British Heart Foundation associate medical director Dr Mike Knapton said: “It is appalling that less than half of eligible female heart patients receive cardiac rehabilitation. Thousands of women are missing out on a vital step in their recovery, increasing their risk of another heart attack.
“That’s why health services urgently need to make rehabilitation more accessible to women, who are either not referred or are put off attending, to help save more lives.”
Audit director Professor Patrick Doherty, of the University of York, said: “This report shows that while some programmes promote an attractive rehabilitation service and have really high uptake of female patients, the majority of programmes struggle to ensure enough women take part.
“Service providers and commissioners should take action to improve the appeal of the programmes and promote them in a way that motivates female patients to attend. A range of options should be offered including community and self-management approaches, all of which have been shown to benefit patients.”
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