Camilla praises GPs who prescribe gardening to patients
The Duchess of Cornwall visited the Lambeth GP Food Co-op in south London.
The Duchess of Cornwall has praised a group of GPs for their pioneering use of gardening to help patients manage health conditions like diabetes and heart problems.
Camilla said if the rest of the nation could see the work the Lambeth GP Food Co-op is doing – providing communal allotment spaces for the long-term sick – they would put it into practice.
Earlier during her visit to the London Borough of Lambeth, the duchess added the finishing touches to a library mural in a primary school in an area of the capital where the community is combating gang problems.
The duchess then met the organisers and beneficiaries of the food co-op at the nearby Stockwell Community Centre, and told them: “I would like to congratulate all of you for what you’re doing here, it really is a question of seeing is believing.
“And if everybody could see what’s happening, what you’re doing here, they would believe it and put it into practice elsewhere.”
It sees three GP surgeries refer willing patients to the allotment sites, and the gardeners then sell their produce locally to NHS staff.
Camilla visited a site used by the Grantham practice and chatted to the green-fingered patients who spoke about their enjoyment of being outdoors.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said last autumn that doctors should consider prescribing fewer pills and more visits to the library or trips to the concert hall, and he announced plans for the creation of a new academy for social prescribing.
Dr Michael Dixon, national clinical champion for social prescribing at NHS England, told Camilla and the Lambeth GP Food Co-op members: “What we’re seeing today, I believe is the future – it’s the very best of the NHS and the very best of Britain.
The duchess began her visit to Lambeth by meeting community groups at St John’s Angell Town Church, which has a close association with the primary school of the same name Camilla toured later in the day.
She met elderly parishioners and organisations working to promote community cohesion, and was joined by the Bishop of Southwark, Christopher Chessun, whose diocese encompasses the church.
