A PILOT scheme where GPs can prescribe “heat” via energy bill payments amid the soaring cost-of-living crisis is now being expanded.


Bills are rocketing...
Across household incomes, surging inflation is being felt, with prices for food, fuel and other essential goods rising faster than earnings. The typical household is currently paying at least £2,500 a year for energy alone after bills surged by 54 per cent in April, crippling many budgets.

 

So what’s the scheme?
The NHS initiative sees low-income patients, whose conditions deteriorate in the cold, “prescribed warmth” by GPs under the “Warm Home Prescription” pilot initiative in Gloucestershire, the first stage of which ran from December to March. The 28 pilot participants had money credited to their energy accounts, amounting to an average spend of around £647 per person.

 

What’s the idea?
Saving the NHS money is a key driver, with the savings coming from preventing the cost of GP appointments and overnight NHS stays due to the impact of cold homes on health and social wellbeing. Dr Hein Le Roux, a GP involved in the Gloucestershire trial, said the scheme enabled health professionals to be “much more proactive”, adding: “It is much better to stop someone getting unwell and keep them well.”

 

How do patients qualify?
To be eligible for the expanded scheme this winter, people must have a diagnosed chronic lung condition, such as emphysema, chronic bronchitis and bronchiectasis; be either under 60 and in receipt of free NHS prescriptions, or over 60 and be struggling to pay their heating bills. Dr Le Roux said: “We want to stop people from becoming unwell and help them to stay healthy at home in housing that is safe and warm.”

 

What have participants said?
One pilot patient, who gave her name as Michelle, said she received the prescription due to medical reasons relating to arthritis and joint pain, saying: “The change around was incredible - I didn’t go to hospital for one…I was able to put my heating on without panicking and thinking if I take money out of this budget can I have it on a bit longer…my mental health was much better.”

 

Anyone else?
Another patient. Darran, said: “I suffer from extreme emphysema and I’m prone to chest infections. A cold home don’t help at all, not when you have respiratory problems. Heating has never been off. I haven’t had to find the money to put on the gas or put the heating on, because you’ve supplied it for me. It’s just been brilliant.”

 

What do GPs say?

Dr Rose Chard from Energy Systems Catapult told to BBC’s Good Morning Scotland: “In Aberdeen, we are reaching out to households which have respiratory illnesses that are made worse by the cold such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and that they live in an area of multiple deprivations. We know that COPD and other respiratory illnesses are made worse by living in a cold home, and so specifically for those people who are at risk, if they live in a cold home they are likely to get poorly, visit their GP more often and visit the hospital more often.”

 

Now?
The NHS paid for the running costs of the initial pilot via the government’s Housing Support Fund, which will also fund the expanded scheme as it covers more than 1000 patients, as far afield as Teeside and Aberdeenshire.

 

What has the reaction been?
One commentator on Radio 2's Jeremy Vine Show said “have we gone absolutely mad?” Concerns have also been raised over the potential to try and work the system, but online, many praised the approach. One tweeter said it was a “complete win-win”.