Dr Douglas Price on the Government’s scheme that allows GPs to help patients at higher risk of hospital admission in the cold to pay their heating bills
I read last week that GPs will be able to prescribe heating to vulnerable patients as part of a health trial. Another hare-brained scheme from the Government, I thought.
The Warm Home Prescription pilot has so far paid to heat the homes of 28 low-income patients, and it will be rolled out to up to 150 more across Gloucestershire this winter.
Unsurprisingly, it turns out that if people are not freezing cold at home, they’re less likely to get ill and need the NHS. But unfortunately, the road to hell is paved with pilots in very small population groups – and there is no suggestion of the initiative being rolled out nationwide.
Honestly, I think this will go the way same way as the vegetable prescriptions. (Whatever happened to those?) But if the initiative is expanded to other areas in the country, would I be fussed about prescribing heating? No, I’d probably just get our social prescribers to sort it.
And I’d also give people appointments. Not necessarily to see a doctor, but to sit in the waiting room to warm up. If Bob Cratchit wants a supportive letter to force Ebenezer Scrooge to throw another coal on the brazier, then I’ll do it without hesitation.
Should we be angry about another unfunded workload dump on GPs? Maybe. But we should be angry that the Government has no proper plans in place to extend the means or disability-tested support for fuel poverty this winter. And after the mini-budget fiasco, it’s clear that there’s no money left to prop up everyone’s heating bills indefinitely.
So, what will I be doing differently now? Well, I’ll have it in my mind to ask, ‘Can you keep warm at home?’ more often. But what then? I guess another sad conversation about how difficult things are – and how that thing they read about GPs prescribing heating was just a load of hot air.
Dr Price is a GP partner in Burntwood, Staffordshire
