GPs prescribe heating to at-risk patients to tackle effects of fuel poverty

A pilot scheme that allows GPs to prescribe heating to patients at higher risk of hospital admission in the cold is being extended to help ease the impact of the cost of living crisis.

The warm home prescription pilot,1 which trialled in Gloucestershire earlier this year, has funded home heating for 28 patients on low incomes who were deemed to be at highest risk of being admitted to hospital.

The scheme is now being extended to 150 households in Gloucestershire and an additional 1000 homes in Teesside and Aberdeen following promising results in the pilot.

The scheme, funded through the government’s housing support fund, was established by the not for profit organisation …