Health chiefs have cut funding for a popular programme that helped elderly people recover from serious illnesses.

Patients recovering from heart attacks and suffering from debilitating diseases like diabetes will no longer be offered cheap, instructor-led exercise routines in parks.

The Fitness for Life programme helped dozens of patients every year to regain their fitness and avoid becoming ill again.

The exercise classes helped 71-year-old Keith Martin recover from a heart attack he suffered while playing table tennis four years ago. He has been going ever since, but the classes will end next month.

He said: “It’s far more important for the NHS to have preventative measures than having heart patients turning up in an emergency.

“The instructors know everyone by their first name and they know everyone’s needs, so they can adjust the pace.

“It’s so important they don’t lose their jobs because they’re providing a brilliant service.”

Barnet Primary Care Trust (PCT) diverted the fund- ing towards a rehabilitation scheme for heart-attack victims, which it says has been proved to be very effective and which needs to be expanded to cope with demand. It has also cut funding for GP referrals to leisure centres.

The move comes after a report from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) found the evidence for instructor-led walks to be “inconclusive”.

A PCT spokeswoman said: “The NICE recommendation to the NHS was that there was insufficient evidence to recommend the use of walking and cycling schemes to promote physical activity other than as part of research studies. This did not mean that people should not be encouraged to take exercise, rather that, other than as part of a properly designed and controlled research study, the NHS should not pay for it.”

Barnet Council has agreed to subsidise gym membership for elderly people who had used the instructor-led programme.

Councillor Helena Hart, cabinet member for health, said: “The council is exploring every avenue to ensure the continuation of the Fitness for Life walks.

“It agrees prevention is better than cure but cannot insist on how the PCT prioritises its funding.”