Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
GPS PRESCRIBING ENERGY BILL HELP
Heating paid for lung patients
PATIENTS are being prescribed heating by doctors this winter.
Eligible people must have chronic lung conditions like emphysema or chronic bronchitis.
They must be under 60 and get free NHS prescriptions, or over 60 and struggling to pay heating bills.
The Warm Home Prescription scheme is being trialled in Gloucestershire for those whose conditions get worse in the cold.
The pilot paid to heat the homes of 28 low-income patients to avoid hospital care costs if they got more ill. Academics claim cold homes cost NHS England £860m a year and cause 10,000 deaths a year.
Energy Systems Catapult, the organisation behind the scheme, is backed by GP surgeries and a local energy charity to identify beneficiaries.
Dr Matt Lipson, who helped design the pilot, said: “If we buy the energy people need but can’t afford, they can keep warm and stay out of hospital.
“The NHS told us they saw a benefit far more quickly than pills and potions – days, not weeks.”
The trial is being expanded to 150 households in Gloucestershire plus 1,000 in Aberdeen and Teesside.
Mum-of-two Michelle Davis, who has arthritis and pulmonary illness, took part in the “mind-blowing” scheme in winter 2021, after spending winter 2020 in hospital with pneumonia and pleurisy.
She said: “My children were able to have a life, they were able to go out and play.” Gloucester GP Dr Hein le Roux said: “It’s saved a lot of money for other services and saved our workload.”