Hospital stays cut by GPS who offer coffee and book clubs

GPS’ prescribing that patients attend book clubs and coffee mornings has helped cut hospital emergency admissions by 14per cent, a study claims.

In research focusing on Somerset, unplanned emergency hospital spells increased by 28.5 per cent between 2013 and 2017. However, the number of patients at the county’s Frome Medical Practice requiring emergency hospital admission saw a drop of 14 per cent over the same period.

GPS at Frome began social prescribing to some of its 28,000 registered patients regarded as those most at risk, during the same period. It implemented a “complex intervention” plan, which involved targeted identification of people at risk of hospital admission and “compassionate” community care.

Those who needed support were offered one-to-one assessments to work out a personalised care plan and were put in touch with a range of services. They also received social prescribing – described by authors from the University of Bradford and the GP surgery as a way to connect, or reconnect, patients with communities through activities such as book clubs, walking clubs, coffee mornings, gym classes, befriending groups, and others.

“The intervention involved rigorous identification of all those in need, not limited by age or diagnosis, followed by care planning and referral to the community development service for goal setting and social network enhancement,” the authors wrote in the British Journal of General Practice.

Costs of unplanned admissions for 2013-14 in Frome were £5,755,487. For 2016-17, the costs were £4,560,421.