The prescribing of social activities, such as exercise and art classes, rather than medications, is set to rise under NHS England plans.
The aim is for “link workers” to support GPs and reduce their workload by helping patients find suitable community activities to improve their health and wellbeing.
The NHS plans to recruit more than 1,000 link workers by 2020-21 and aims, in the long term, for them to handle around 900,000 patient appointments a year.
James Sanderson, NHS England’s Director of Personalised Care, said: “Social prescribing is an important component of the NHS comprehensive model of personalised care and there is emerging evidence that it can lead to a range of positive health and wellbeing outcomes for people, such as improved quality of life and emotional wellbeing. “The aim is [...] a substantial reduction in the use of NHS services, including GP attendances.”
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