An Echo-backed campaign by city residents has helped save vital cardiac rehabilitation classes axed last year as part of swingeing health service cuts...

IT TOOK weeks of dedicated campaigning, pleas from MPs and heart charities, and a petition which contained almost 4,000 names.

And this was what it was all about - giving heart patients the best possible opportunity of getting back on their feet and living a full life through a programme of rehabilitation classes.

This is the scene of heart patients finally getting the service that campaigners fought so hard to save for them.

Former cardiac patient Anne Fry, of Curlew Drive, Hythe, who led a campaign to save the rehabilitation programme, said she was delighted to see the classes back in place.

"So many people I spoke to were devastated when they were stopped, so it was definitely worth the fight to bring them back again," she said.

Saved through the Daily Echo-backed Have a Heart campaign, cardiac rehabilitation classes held at leisure centres across Southampton and the Waterside were cut as the Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust struggled to plug a £15m black hole.

The trust had ended the year with an unprecedented £7m deficit and the classes, set up to help people recover from cardiac problems and learn how to lead healthier lifestyles, were cut in a bid to save just £20,000.

The cuts came at the same time as 400 posts across the trust were axed, recruitment was frozen and pre-operation overnight stays for patients were reduced.

But a group of patients who had already completed the classes were not prepared to accept the decision.

They claimed that axing the classes would cost the NHS much more in the long-run because, without the proper aftercare, dozens of people could end up back in hospital.

Determined to save the classes for future heart patients, their campaign won the support of MPs, medical professionals, heart charities and members of the public, and generated a petition of almost 4,000 signatures.

Just five weeks after the campaign was launched, health bosses announced that the classes would be reinstated.

The decision was declared a "victory for compassion and common sense" by campaigners.

Plans to axe the course - run at Southampton's David Lloyd Centre, Bitterne Leisure Centre and the Applemore Recreation Centre in Dibden Purlieu - were announced after two of the five nurses who ran it decided to leave the trust.

Due to financial pressures the decision was then made to close the programme.

Following the campaign, Southampton City, New Forest and Eastleigh and Test Valley South PCTs announced they would be taking over the Stage Three programme.

They have spent the last three months recruiting and training staff to work within the trust's Cardiac Nursing Team to provide the service.

On Tuesday, March 1 the classes were finally reinstated.

This week, in the third class of an eight-week rolling programme at Bitterne Leisure Centre, the first heart patients on the newly reinstated scheme said they were relieved the classes had been brought back, adding that, more than anything, they were helping to restore their confidence.

Cardiac rehabilitation nurses from Southampton City PCT, assisted by three cardiac nurses from Southampton General Hospital, led the patients through a warm-up, circuits including stepping, jogging and squats, and a cool-down, before a 45-minute educational session.

Every heart patient since October has been offered a place on a course, with a current waiting list of about four weeks.

The city PCT has recently recruited another two cardiac rehabilitation nurses who will start later next month, taking the classes back out to Applemore and either David Lloyd in Southampton or an alternative venue.

Next month, a completely new class will start at St Mary's Leisure Centre in order to expand the service.

Cheryl Harding, lead cardiac nurse for Southampton City PCT, said: "We have always said the PCT is committed to providing these classes, which we see as very important.

"We have reinstated them as soon as we possibly could and we are now working to re-establish them in the other PCT areas as well.

"We have had a lot of positive feedback from patients so far."

THE HAVE A HEART CAMPAIGN:

A GROUP of concerned patients who had already completed the cardiac rehabilitation classes launched the Have a Heart campaign, backed by the Daily Echo, and vowed to win a reprieve for the service.

The classes, which teach heart patients how to lead healthier lifestyles, form the third stage in a four-phase rehabilitation programme, with Stage One providing specialist advice to patients on cardiac wards and Stage Two a telephone advice service.

Stage Four takes the exercise element of the course to the next level, but can not be undertaken without completing Stage Three.

Health bosses said the move would save no more than £20,000 - a fraction of their multi-million-pound cost-cutting target.

Heart patients from across the city claimed that axing the classes would cost the NHS much more in the long run because, without the proper aftercare, dozens of people could end up back in hospital.