Foreward

In no other branch of Medicine is there a greater reliance on high technology than in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with heart disease. Prospects for continuing good health in patients who have suffered a heart attack or developed other forms of heart disease are improving every year. What many of us have forgotten is that the application of this technology and the emotional upheaval associated with the discovery that one has heart disease can take its toll, not only on the individual, but also those who love and care for them.  Hospitals can provide a certain degree of support and rehabilitation in the early days after the first diagnosis, but eventually the patient returns to the community and at this stage it is critically important that he or she receive the care and supervision by someone close, as well as the emotional and sometimes physical support of fellow sufferers and those who take an interest in their continuing well-being.

This  handbook can be considered part of the "prescription" for patients and their relatives/friends or carers.  It has the full support of the Clinical Staff involved in the treatment of heart disease at the James Paget Hospital, Gorleston, Gt Yarmouth.

Dr W J Grabau
Consultant Physician