Heating costs in the UK: heat on prescription

If you don’t feel cold, you get sick less often. But many people cannot afford heating in these expensive times. In Great Britain there is now a cash injection on prescription. It’s a pilot project.

Life is not that easy for them. Mark Penting is in a wheelchair. He has multiple sclerosis, and his wife Cheryl takes care of him around the clock. At least the two pensioners have one less thing to worry about this winter: it’s pleasantly warm at home.

Mark in particular is doing much better. “It’s such a difference. I’m so happy. To be honest, I was close to tears at times. I was in pain because it was so cold,” he says.

Cash injection for heating

They used to only be able to heat the house to 14 degrees. It was like poison, but that was all Mark and Cheryl could afford. But now they are getting heat prescribed by their doctor. He wrote a prescription and since then, according to Cheryl, they both have a cash injection for heating. “The health service has contacted the energy supplier. Now a large part of our consumption is automatically not billed at all.”

In Gloucestershire, central England, prescription heat is a pilot project. Patients who don’t heat much due to lack of money, but often get sick as a result, can hope for a prescription. For general practitioner Hein Le Roux, the goal is to reduce the number of sick people. “Getting sick is expensive. Some patients also have to go to the hospital. Our healthcare system is already at its limit. Now we’re helping people not to get sick. We prescribe help to keep them warm and hopefully avoid them ending up in the hospital,” explains the doctor .

Higher temperatures, fewer treatments

La Roux can always issue recipes for the winter months. The money comes from a special fund from the British government. So far, the project has proven itself, says La Roux. He has far less to deal with. “We’re seeing a massive difference. Patients aren’t getting as sick as they used to. Not like they’ve been in previous years.”

In other communities, too, heat is something of a vaccine. East Suffolk Councilor Richard Kerry believes it can save money. Britain’s tax-funded healthcare system spends over a billion pounds on cold-related illnesses. Paying part of the heating costs is cheaper for Councilman Kerry than the potential treatment costs later on. “We invest money so that people don’t have to go to the hospital. That reduces the much higher costs for the healthcare system. So we invest to save money in the long term.”

Cheryl and her husband Mark, from Gloucestershire, have not been ill this winter. For the first time in years. Heat says Cheryl is better than any medicine.