LONDON: A new programme in Wales will allow family doctors to offer patients an unusual prescription for better health: bicycles.The pilot programme, the first such initiative in Britain, according to the health board that is leading it, reflects an effort by medical professionals around the world to give patients alternatives to drugs, in order to avoid side effects and improve cost efficiency.
Patients at two medical centers in Cardiff, the Welsh capital, will be offered sixmonth subscriptions to a bike-rental service that allows them to make unlimited free rides of up to 30 minutes at a time, and officials hope to expand the programme.
“For the first phase of the pilot, we want to make sure the scheme works as intended and is easy to use for patients and their health professionals, so we’ll be seeking feedback from participants,” Dr Tom Porter of the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, said in a statement on Wednesday.
“If the approach proves successful,” he added, “we’ll look at making it more widely available across the city.”
Recent research supports the idea that exercise can be considered medicinal, and studies have shown its efficiency, comparable to drugs, in treating conditions such as high blood pressure and obesity.
Other initiatives — like Exercise in Medicine by the American College of Sports Medicine — encourage doctors to prescribe exercise as a part of treatment.
The Cardiff programme follows a similar effort in Boston, where in 2014 the city made it possible for doctors to prescribe bikes to low-income patients. Britain introduced an exercise prescription framework in 2001, allowing doctors and nurses to refer patients for supervised physical activity at centers and gyms.
More recently, a new course at Loughborough University in England was created to educate exercise scientists, with the goal of getting them the accreditation necessary to issue prescriptions within Britain’s National Health Service.