A groundbreaking initiative which has helped thousands of people in the Harrogate area live longer and healthier could be expanded across North Yorkshire.
Leisure facilities across Harrogate, Knaresborough, Pateley Bridge and Ripon which were run by Brimhams Active yesterday (December 1) moved under the banner of North Yorkshire Council’s new Active North Yorkshire service which aims to improve health and wellbeing across the county.
The new service takes over the specialist rehabilitation exercise classes run at Harrogate’s Fairfax Wellbeing Hub. The classes which cover care for people who have suffered a stroke, a cardiac arrest, cancer or have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease are available to local residents.
A cardiac rehab instructor and committee member of the British Association for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation Exercise Instructor Network (BACPR EIN), Emma Spalding, BA Hons, said Harrogate is held up as an exemplar of best practice for the work the centres do.
For one of her class members, 70-year-old Neil from Knaresborough, it has been life-changing. He suffered a heart attack in August last year and found himself referred to the Fairfax team where Emma Spalding and the team have helped guide him back to health.
Anyone who has had a “cardiac event”, such as a heart attack, a coronary artery bypass graft, a stent fitted, or an aortic valve implantation, has access to the cardiac rehab programme which brings together a multi-disciplinary health care team, who offer a wide and specialised skill base of expertise to patients. The team at the Fairfax Wellbeing Hub includes a cardiac specialist nurse, a physiotherapist, exercise professionals, a cardiac rehab physio assistant, an occupational therapist and a pharmacist.
The eight-week programme, run in partnership with the NHS, sees patients attend two exercise classes every week and includes an in-depth questionnaire covering details of the recent cardiac event, medications taken, a blood pressure and resting heart rate check, and a 10-metre walk shuttle test.
Mrs Spalding said:
The main focus behind the programme is to rehabilitate patients so they can increase their physical fitness, strength and capabilities. It also educates them on the huge benefits and importance of regular exercise and encourages them to continue with long-term exercise to increase both physical and mental health and live a longer life.
We see people who have experienced all types of cardiac events and are all ages, from those in their 30s to those in their 90s. We have an excellent retention rate. Overall the majority of people will continue with the exercise programme and go on to join other classes.
The best outcome for us is teaching people the benefits which exercise can bring whether that is physical, social or mental. We are there as a professional team with specialist expert advice into leading a more positive, healthier life.
Retired financial services manager, Neil, is among those who have benefitted and he says he is now not only 1.5 stones lighter, but fitter than he has been in a long time:
When I had my heart attack, I felt vulnerable for the first time in my life, but the cardiac rehab team was the best support I could have had. From playing golf a couple of times a week, I am now also doing circuit training, pilates and swimming every week.
I liked the discipline of the cardiac rehab classes and being with people who were in the same position as me – when you can see your heart rate improving you start to feel normal again. I think about my heart attack every day, it came out of the blue, but I now feel very positive thanks to the care I got from both the NHS and the rehab team.
Leisure centres across the county had been managed by five different operators in the former district council areas but under North Yorkshire Council, which launched in April last year, they are being brought under Active North Yorkshire as active wellbeing hubs.
The four leisure and wellness centres in Harrogate, Knaresborough, Ripon and Nidderdale, the three wellbeing hubs at Fairfax, Stockwell and Jennyfield Styan, Harrogate’s Turkish Baths, Starbeck Baths and the Little Explorers Day Nursery in Harrogate are now under the service.
North Yorkshire Council’s executive member for leisure, Cllr Simon Myers, said:
We are very lucky in Harrogate – the rehabilitation service we have there is first class and I hope it can be rolled out across the county.
Our new Active North Yorkshire service is aimed at supporting our communities to be active and helping to improve people’s physical and mental health and wellbeing.
Following the transfer, customers will still be able to access facilities and classes as before and should notice minimum disruption, but there will be additional targeted and locally-based activities and services as well as increased support for community-based sport as Active North Yorkshire continues to be rolled out across the county.
The Selby and Tadcaster leisure centres were brought under the new brand in September, with changes for the Richmondshire Leisure Trust coming into play in the spring of next year and the centres in the former Ryedale and Scarborough areas moving over by the summer of 2027.
Customers using centres in the former Craven and Hambleton district council areas will soon see changes as staff begin to wear the new Active North Yorkshire uniforms, with websites and apps changing by summer next year.
