waiting well
Support for NHS patients in West suffolk – waiting for hospital treatment or surgery
Welcome to Waiting Well
You have been invited by West Suffolk Hospital to attend Waiting Well support classes.
Abbeycroft Leisure, in partnership with West Suffolk Hospital and Allied Health Professionals Suffolk have created some sessions to help keep you as well as possible.
Book via the links below to access this FREE support as a patient on an elective waiting list waiting for treatment/surgery at West Suffolk Hospital. We offer support to reduce the risk of deterioration of mental and physical health within a group session environment.



What to expect in the classes
Each class will last around 90 minutes, where you will receive a short information session, with topics including pain management and wellbeing, followed by gentle movement and physical activity support, personalised to consider any long-term conditions and/or health impacts which may be leaving you with reduced mobility.
The goal is to allow you to Wait Well until your treatment pathway is completed.
Allied Health Educational Topics
Pain Management
A short presentation offering insight into pain mechanisms and how you can influence and manage these.
Pre and post-operative expectations
A presentation offering an insight into what to expect leading up to, into and after your surgery, from the different professionals you will meet, potential stay times, mobility aids and more.
Dietary Advice and Nutrition
A presentation aimed at simplifying ‘diet’ and ‘nutrient’, into an easily digestible form empowering you to make appropriate choices.
Wellbeing
Like physical fitness, everyone has mental and emotional wellbeing. This short presentation aims to provide you with information on how to leverage simple choices and habits to maximise ‘wellbeing’.
Adjacent services
There are many services available to you locally, this short presentation aims to raise awareness of the most commonly used.
Please read before you continue with your booking
Health Commitment Statement relating to exercise – Our commitment to you
1. We will respect your personal decisions and allow you to make your own decisions about what exercise you can carry out. However, we ask you not to exercise beyond what you consider to be your own abilities.
2. We will take reasonable steps to make sure that our equipment and facilities are clean and safe for you to use and enjoy for the normal purpose they were intended for. Bear in mind that we are not able to clean or inspect equipment and facilities after each use.
3. We will take reasonable steps to make sure that our staff are qualified to the fitness-industry standards set by the Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity.
4. If you tell us, you have a disability which puts you at a substantial disadvantage in accessing our equipment and facilities, we will consider what adjustments, if any, are reasonable for us to make.
Relating to exercise – Your commitment to us
1. Do not exercise beyond your own abilities. If you know or are concerned that you have a medical condition which might interfere with you exercising safely before you use our equipment and facilities you should get advice from a relevant medical professional and follow that advice.
2. Make yourself aware of any rules and instructions, including warning notices, and follow them. Exercise carries its own risks. When you are exercising, you are responsible for the risks involved. You should not carry out any activities which you have been told are not suitable for you.
3. Let us know immediately if our equipment or facilities are unsafe to use or if you feel ill when using our equipment or facilities. Our staff members are not qualified doctors, but there will be a person available who has had first-aid training.
4. If you have a disability, follow any reasonable instructions to allow you to exercise safely.
You should stop and seek medical review if you experience a dramatic increase in breathlessness, new or worsening chest pain and/or increasing glyceryl trinitrate requirement, a sudden onset of rapid palpitations or irregular heartbeat, dizziness, a reduction in exercise capacity or sudden change in vision.
Contraindication advice:
- To ensure a safe approach to initiating activity, inactive people should increase activity levels gradually.
- People with unstable medical conditions require investigation.
- Fear of adverse events is a common barrier for patients and professionals.
- Safe advice should include recommendations on symptoms to look out for and where/how to report them.
Book your free Waiting Well session
Classes are held at the following locations.
All classes are FREE to attend and there is FREE parking at each centre.
To book any class please call us on Tel. 01284 757473 or you can email contactus@acleisure.com.
HAVERHILL LEISURE CENTRE
Tuesdays 14:00
Haverhill Leisure Centre
Eringshausen Way
Haverhill, CB9 0ER.
KINGFISHER LEISURE CENTRE, SUDBURY
Tuesdays 14:30
Kingfisher Leisure Centre
Station Road
Sudbury. CO10 2SU
BURY ST. EDMUNDS LEISURE CENTRE
Wednesdays 09:00
Bury St Edmunds Leisure Centre
Beetons Way
Bury St Edmunds. IP33 3TT
If you have any feedback or suggestions regarding this waiting well session offer, please email waiting.well@wsh.nhs.uk