Poetry and painting classes... on the NHS
DOCTORS should start sending patients to art and poetry classes to boost their health, according to MPs.
Greater use of creative schemes could save the NHS money, they said, as they help improve patients’ wellbeing.
A report found there was a drop in GP consultation rates among conditions such as depression and chronic pain when patients took an arts course.
The all-party parliamentary group on arts, health and wellbeing said: ‘Arts- on-prescription help people to overcome physical and psychological pain, playing a vital role in the recovery and maintenance of health. Group creative activities in the community also help to overcome social isolation in people of all ages.’
The group recommended that NHS England should support clinical commissioning groups, NHS trusts and local authorities to incorporate arts-on-prescription into their plans.
It also recommended that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence – the health service watchdog – should regularly examine the evidence and include the use of arts in its guidelines.
Their report highlighted the Artlift programme in Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, where health professionals refer patients with a range of conditions. It offers those with problems such as depression, chronic pain or recovering from a stroke an eight-week course in poetry, ceramics, drawing or mosaics.
A cost-benefit analysis showed that after patients took the classes, GP consultation rates dropped by 37 per cent and hospital admissions by 27 per cent. This was equivalent to savings of £216 for each patient.
Health select committee chairman Sarah Wollaston said: ‘If social prescribing were a drug, people would be outraged that doctors weren’t prescribing it.’ Former culture minister Ed Vaizey said it was ‘pretty shocking’ that the last health secretary to talk about the arts was Labour’s Alan Johnson.
He added: ‘It’s pretty shocking that health ministers have come and gone who know about the importance of the arts, but haven’t seen fit to talk about [it] and show how the arts can make a real difference.’
Shirley Cramer, chief executive of the Royal Society for Public Health, said: ‘We have long championed greater awareness of the benefits of the creative arts.
‘We are delighted that this report illustrates and champions these benefits, and we hope it will transform the conversation in the health sector around arts and stimulate new and innovative approaches.’