Doctors should be prescribing museum visits instead of doling out drugs to sick Brits

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Alamy Museum visits should be prescribed instead of drugs, says NHS head

Instead, he wants every medic to consider community-based therapies to boost well-being.

It comes as new evidence suggests “social prescribing” can slash GP demand as well as visits to A&E.

Rolling out such schemes nationally would cost the NHS £100million, according to experts.

But they claim referring patients to clubs and classes reduces reliance on medication and could save billions.

One in five patients visits their GP for loneliness, anxiety, depression, housing worries and debt.

Mr Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, said: “Rather than ‘a pill for every ill’, social prescribing is a new way of helping people get better and stay healthy.

“It would be good to see all GPs considering whether their patients might benefit.”

Currently, only a fifth of GPs regularly refer sick Brits to social prescribing services.

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