HEALTH campaigners have called for more heart patients to benefit from cardiac rehabilitation after new figures showed only 3% of patients with heart failure were offered the treatment.

Across Scotland, a total of 65.2% of heart attack patients were referred for cardiac rehabilitation, as were 68.5% of people who had bypass surgery. But just 3.1% of those with heart failure were referred for rehabilitation, along with only 7.4% of those with unstable angina.

The British Heart Foundation (BHF) Scotland and Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland (CHSS) are now calling for more of these patents to benefit from the treatment, which includes supervised exercise sessions along with education to help patients live as full and healthy a life as possible.

The two charities argued that the rehab was cheap, costing about £600 per patient, and may save lives.

Ben McKendrick, senior policy and public affairs manager at BHF Scotland, said: "Cardiac rehab saves lives but there is an unacceptable gulf between the levels of support offered to patients with different heart conditions."

CHSS chief executive David Clark said: "Cardiac rehab should be fully recognised as being central to the treatment and care of all heart patients who might benefit."

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said "excellent" progress had been made in offering rehabilitation.

She said: "In 2007 around 45% of people in the clinical priority groups had access to cardiac rehabilitation, this figure has now risen to 65%.

"While this substantial increase is a great achievement, we recognise that there is still much more to do to help improve the quality of care for people living with heart failure."