Delivering for Doctors

“Inactivity is a feature in almost every long term condition we deal with,” says Dr Ollie Hart.

Ollie and his medical colleagues have been banging on about this for years, and setting an example by cycling all the time and generally breezing into their surgeries looking like athletes.

Dr Ollie Hart

“But the way you promote exercise matters,” he says. “It doesn’t work by just wagging your finger at someone and saying; ‘You should do something!’”

This spring, the Russell’s Bicycle Shed delivery service pedalled the launch pack of the city’s Move More Active Practice network to the first 10 Sheffield GP centres to join the network. Move More GP Jo Maher hopes many more city GP centres will ask about joining the Active Practice network soon.

“We have some brilliant local advocates for leading active lifestyles in the health area already, and we want to grow that influence, because we know the value that health practitioners can have on the communities they see and support,” said Tom Hughes of scheme partners Yorkshire Sport. 

“We also know that we are facing a climate emergency and the role that travelling short journeys in vehicles can contribute to this, so using the e-cargo bike from Russell’s is a brilliant way of delivering materials to our surgeries and setting an example for others to follow.” 

Russell delivering Active Practice packs to Birley Health Centre

The idea of the Active Practice network, says Jo Maher, is twofold.

“We want to reemphasise the importance of physical activity and exercise in keeping people physically and mentally well,” she says, “and also signpost people to all the many free resources we have in Sheffield that anybody can use.”

Jo cites Active Practices setting up health walks in the Shire Brook Valley Nature Reserve, links between her own surgery in Wincobank, the Ingle Runners group and the SOAR community regeneration charity, a local physical health and wellbeing activities digital resource set up by Kira Watson at the Porter Valley primary care network, along with the ‘health coaching’ initiative used in Heeley by Ollie Hart and his colleagues.

“We talk to people about what matters to them, what’s most likely to attain a life they value,” says Ollie. “They might say they want to have more energy to keep up with the kids, to concentrate better at work, to sleep well or to have good relationships. And being physically fit makes a difference to all of that, along with things people know about like cancer, inflammation, mental health and cardiovascular health.”

He adds: “Everyone knows that physically activity is good for you, the question is, how are you going to prioritise it in the hectic craziness of your life?”

So the next step is to help that particular person find their equivalent of Ollie’s fell running or cycle commuting, which could be a gardening group, a nearby social group, the local parkrun or getting hold of a bike and exploring the local parks and trails - and then keeping their bike going to ensure the exercise becomes regular.

Jo Maher hopes all local GP centres can find a way to become Active Practices, choosing programmes to suit them, their staff and their patients, and she’s delighted the NHS is now actively supporting the idea of exercise ‘on prescription.’ Not least because a healthier and happier population will reduce the workload of NHS staff, she says.

“We’d love to reduce people’s reliance on health professionals. I think it makes people feel more in control of things.”

For more info: https://www.movemoresheffield.com/move-more-active-practice