Football Tickets as Medicine: A Step Towards a New Model of Care
The National Health Service (NHS) in Gloucestershire has launched a pilot program that allows 12 general practitioner (GP) practices to prescribe Forest Green Rovers football tickets to patients with mild to moderate depression. This initiative is part of a broader movement to shift the focus from a purely medical model of care to a social and community-based approach.
While some may mock this approach as insufficient to address the NHS's pressing issues, it has been supported by Health Secretary Wes Streeting as part of his efforts to transform the NHS into a preventive health service. The rationale behind this shift is that GPs are overwhelmed with patients presenting with issues such as back and neck pain, depression, anxiety, and fatigue, and the medical approach often involves prescribing medications, which can have significant side effects and costs.
The pharmaceutical industry has a strong lobby pushing for the use of "magic bullets" and drugs to treat various conditions. However, this approach may be overmedicalizing common issues that people visit their GPs for. Social prescribing, on the other hand, involves referring patients to community resources such as exercise, nature, music, or even football
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www.gov.ukhttps://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-health-security-agency
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www.gov.ukhttps://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-of-health-and-social-care
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