Doctors ‘Could Prescribe Air Con’

GPs could prescribe air conditioning and child anger management classes under an £8.9m government scheme. Under the plans, the NHS could pay for air conditioning to be fitted to the homes of people with lung disease to improve their health in hot weather. And anger management classes would be given to children with behavioural problems.

The money will be allocated to 81 deprived areas in England under a framework to tackle inequalities. The framwork also aims to encourage local councils and health services to find new ways of working together to prevent ill health amongst the community.

Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt said: “For too long health has been seen simply in terms of hospitals and bed numbers. “NHS stands for the National Health Service not the National Sickness Service and we want it to live up to its name. We need to radically change the culture of how we shape and deliver care – shifting focus from curing the sick to the proactive prevention of ill health, as well as tackling health inequalities.

She added: “By giving GPs more flexibility in how they use NHS money and investing more in community based programmes, local services will be able to offer people a seamless service of care – whether in a hospital, in their home or in the community.”

Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly added: “By using this framework and working through Local Area Agreements local authorities and primary care trusts can begin to draw together the contributions of different services, leisure, transport, libraries and housing as well as across social, primary and community care to create the outcomes which lead to prosperous and healthier communities.”

Andrea Bilbow, of the National Attention Deficit Disorder Information and Support Service, said: “Anger management classes are an incredibly good idea. I hope they becomes a reality. It wouldn’t prevent children having to take drugs, but it would offer a much more positive outcome.”

She said being on medication would make children more amenable to interventions like anger management classes.