GPs to prescribe walking and cycling in bid to ease burden on NHS

Suggestion of activities to help improve mental and physical health part of wider movement of social prescribing'

GPs around England are to prescribe patients activities such as walking or cycling in a bid to ease the burden on the NHS by improving mental and physical health.

The 12.7m trial, which was announced by the Department for Transport and will begin this year, is part of a wider movement of social prescribing", an approach already used in the NHS, in which patients are referred for non-medical activities.