Cardiac rehabilitation in the United Kingdom.

Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is a cost-effective, life-enhancing and life-saving treatment for patients recovering from cardiac illness--from myocardial infarction, revascularisation, angina, heart failure, etc. Its main aims are to help the patient to recover as quickly and completely as possible and then to reduce to a minimum the chance of recurrence of the cardiac illness--it should be an integral step in the management of the patient's condition. Despite the inclusion of CR in the National Service Framework for coronary heart disease only a minority of cardiac patients join CR programmes. Suggestions are made for increasing the uptake.