DOCTORS can write prescriptions to give Brits with respiratory conditions free energy bills as part of a health trial.

The idea is that the scheme will prevent people from getting ill from cold and needing hospital treatment.

The Warm Home Prescription pilot paid to heat the homes of 28 low-income patients.

The trial achieved such good results that it is being expanded to 1,150 homes in NHS Gloucestershire's area, plus about 1,000 in Aberdeen and Teesside.

Energy billsin the UK have soared in recent months, in part because the war in Ukraine has reduced supplies of Russian gas.

As a result, the Government stepped in to cap prices, but bills for a typical household will still go up to £3,000 from April 2023.

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Dr Hein La Roux, whose surgery in Churchdown, just outside Gloucester, took part, told the BBC: "Usually we wait until people get sick and then go out and see them, or worse they end up in hospital.

"But it's actually saved a lot of money for other services and also saved our workload."

"It was just a fantastic feeling to know you're doing your job properly rather than going to see sick people," he added.

Respiratory disorders can be made worse by prolonged exposure to low indoor temperatures.

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Previously, the Royal College of Physicians found more than half of Britons (55 per cent) said the cost-of-living crisis was damaging their health.

The Health Foundation has called it an “emergency” and nine in ten pharmacists in England have reported having patients going without medicine because they cannot afford prescription charges.

Among the drugs people are choosing to go without are antibiotics, painkillers, asthma inhalers, blood pressure medication and antidepressants.

GP Dr Rachel Ward, who is based in Didcot, Oxfordshire, said: “When money is tight, other factors such as diet, exercise and the ability to heat our homes are affected.

“Over time, these changes have a negative impact on our health.”

People living in cold homes have an increased tendency to suffer colds, flu, bronchitis and pneumonia.

A poll by the charity Asthma + Lung UK found that almost a sixth of people with asthma (523 out of 3,471) were cutting back on using their inhaler to make it last longer.

Meanwhile, GP magazine Pulse reported that doctors will start to send social prescribers to confirm details health limiting housing to better inform letters to housing agencies.

This comes after the death of a two-year old, who died from prolonged exposure to mould in his family’s housing association flat in Rochdale.

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GPs have said that housing agencies typically ignore letters outlining these issues and fail to act on information sent by a general practitioner alone.

But under the new scheme, social prescribers will be sent to assess a patient’s housing conditions to strengthen a GP’s case to the local agency.

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