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Evaluation of Prehab2Rehab

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Published on: 30th September 2025

  • Health board

A process and outcome evaluation to understand the impacts of the Prehab2Rehab programme

Backgound

Programmes to get patients ready for surgery to treat cancer can improve how they respond to the surgery and how quickly they recover from it. These programmes are referred to as prehabilitation. They offer patients different support such as exercise classes, guidance on a healthy diet or support with managing stress to improve their overall health, before and immediately after surgery.

The Prehab2Rehab Programme

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board created the Prehab2Rehab programme to help cancer patients prepare for treatment such as surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Patients are offered a service that meets their own specific needs which may include exercise classes, guidance on their diet and support with their mental wellbeing. The goal is to help patients recover more quickly and stay healthy after treatment, reducing hospital stays, complications, and repeat visits to the hospital.

Evaluation Purpose

This evaluation aimed to understand how well the Prehab2Rehab programme is meeting its goals.

Study Design

We spoke to 14 health care professionals who work on the programme as well as 15 people with the lived experience of either taking part in the Prehab2Rehab programme or not taking part in the programme. We also used information on 351 cancer patients to assess if taking part in the programme had any impact on how long patients stayed in hospital after the surgery, complications after surgery as well as going back into hospital after surgery.

Findings

We found that patients who participated in at least three exercise sessions of Prehab2Rehab stayed in the hospital about 3 days less than those who did not. We also found that most patients were happy with the programme and said it helped them make healthy changes to their lifestyles before surgery.

It also gave them emotional support by being part of a group of people going through the same experience. However, some patients found it hard to take part in Prehab2Rehab because of how unwell they were or because of feeling sad, anxious or stressed. Some patients also lacked transport to get to where the programme was offered. Healthcare professionals thought it was a good programme but suggested some areas of improvement for the future, including improving the rehabilitation side of the programme to help patients maintain healthy changes after surgery.

Conclusion

Evidence suggests that the programme reduces the length of hospital stays after surgery in those who take part in at least three exercise sessions. Improvements in how the programme is delivered could make it better than it currently is.

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Prehab2Rehab evaluation report

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