The CHULN/FMUL-UL Cardiovascular Rehabilitation Programme has been responding over many years to many cardiovascular patients after acute events, from the initial period and over the long term.
Following the rules of social isolation, it was necessary to interrupt this programme (at Pulido Valente Hospital and at Estádio Universitário-CRECUL) so as not to place participants and the rehabilitation team at risk.
We decided, thinking about the time of COVID-19, anticipating possible crises requiring physical distance, and meeting the needs of patients who cannot travel to this centre regularly because they live far away, to build a distance cardiovascular rehabilitation programme:
REC - Home Rehabilitation
For this purpose, we created on the CHULN Platform, in the Heart and Vessels Department section, a page where the in-person programme can be viewed, and where the programme at home is announced, as well as the entire multidisciplinary team and contacts for interested patients. There is also cardiovascular health information, which will be updated, for patients, health personnel and the general public, and it is now possible to view Recommendations for cardiac patients related to COVID-19.
Only for patients on a programme, we established a link by link where weekly we will put exercise videos with different levels of intensity, according to risk and functional capacity, presentations on health topics that are part of the usual hospital programme, recipes and food advice.
In this programme, which has already started with a cardiological evaluation by telephone and email, and weekly telephone monitoring by nurses and exercise physiologists, patients will also have the possibility to have telephone cardiology, nutrition and psychology consultations with their respective specialists.
With the Cardiac Rehabilitation team, our patients are never alone.
We want you to continue to feel that you can always count on us!