Gateshead GPs chosen to prescribe activities in trial

The pilot scheme will start this year and run until 2025

GPs in Gateshead will take part in a new nationwide trial to help improve patients' mental and physical wellbeing by prescribing walking and cycling.

Gateshead Council will receive more than £270,000 of the £12.7m the Department for Transport is giving to 11 local authorities.

The aim of the funding is to promote walking and cycling to reduce reliance on the NHS.

In Gateshead a cycle and walking scheme for older people will be set up.

Cycle training will also be provided to adults, along with cycling taster days and mental health groups promoting exercise.

The government has said authorities must improve infrastructure alongside the trials, so people feel safe whilst undertaking these activities.

As well as Gateshead the trial will run in Bath and North East Somerset, Bradford, Cornwall, Cumbria, Doncaster, Leeds, Nottingham, Plymouth, Suffolk and Staffordshire.

It comes as part of the government's Gear Change Plan, published in 2020, and aims to evaluate the impact of these activities on individuals' health, such as reduced GP appointments and reliance on medication.

'So many benefits'

Trudy Harrison, walking and cycling minister, said the activities had "so many benefits - from improving air quality in our communities to reducing congestion on our busiest streets".

"It also has an enormous positive impact on physical and mental health, which is why we have funded these projects which will get people across the country moving and ease the burden on our NHS," she added.

The pilot projects will run over the next three years and will been monitored and evaluated as they continue, the government said.

Maria Caulfield, minister for health said: "Getting active is hugely beneficial for both our mental and physical health, helping reduce stress and ward off other illness such as heart disease and obesity."