Great Western Coffee Shop

DfT press release yesterday
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/walking-wheeling-and-cycling-to-be-offered-on-prescription-in-nationwide-trial (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/walking-wheeling-and-cycling-to-be-offered-on-prescription-in-nationwide-trial)

Doctors haven't shown great interest in social prescribing that I am aware off. This will also require there to be some decent infrastructure, wouldn't want to prescribe somebody's death warrant.
Interesting list of trial sites

    Bath and North East Somerset
    Bradford
    Cornwall
    Cumbria
    Doncaster
    Gateshead
    Leeds
    Nottingham
    Plymouth
    Suffolk
    Staffordshire

I am sure there will be some knowing comments for the ones in the forum area

Does the prescription include the two wheels if you haven’t got a pair?

It says ‘free bike loans’ in the press release.

Seeing as Bath and North East Somerset's on the list, we can have:

"Combe Down Tunnel: available on prescription."

GPs to stamp the prescription with an image of a Bath to Midford token, patient to take the prescription to both the Royal Oak on Bath's Lower Bristol Road and then to the Hope and Anchor, Midford who are instructed to countersign the image and record the visit in the log.

The patient may *not* be issued with pork scratchings at any time, but the pub staff should check that the level in their glass is appropriate, and if not issue decalcified water or a tannin-rich* hot drink.

Mark

*I never knew that tea, or, rather, tannin, was good for steam loco boilers.

Cycling UK are going to deliver some of the schemes, in Bradford, Leeds and Suffolk
https://www.cyclinguk.org/news/cycling-uk-deliver-governments-cycle-prescription-pilot-three-locations (https://www.cyclinguk.org/news/cycling-uk-deliver-governments-cycle-prescription-pilot-three-locations)

I don't think the pharmacy I regularly get my prescriptions from has room on their shelves for bicycles! :P

How will walking  be offered "on prescription"? Ever the pedant, I find that a definition of a prescription is "an instruction written by a medical practitioner that authorizes a patient to be issued with a medicine or treatment", though it could be said that "my GP prescribed [ie recommended] a complete rest" (at the patient's expenses and at no cost to the state).

Walking requires only sensible footwear and clothing, and the patient will probably already have the latter - and it's easily done almost anywhere. Cycling requires awareness of how to ride safely and how to secure and maintain one's bike. There are parts of Reading where the road conditions do not encourage rides from home.