Chris Boardman calls for free bikes on the NHS

The saving made would far outweigh the initial cost and I also agree with the sentiment make cycling so easy and so safe as to benefit society

Bikes are considerably cheaper than the drugs and the treatment that the NHS has to provide to obese people.

Overall cost of obesity to the NHS is around £4bn, estimated to rise next year to over £6bn.

Bariatric surgery alone costs £32 million pa. Diabetes treatment costs around £700 million pa. There is the increase in knee and hip surgery, provision of mobility scooters and the every increasing number of prescriptions for high blood pressure.

The wider cost to the UK economy is around £27bn (Foresight Report).

Not to mention the 30,000 people that die prematurely each year of obesity-related conditions.

Bikes are one thing, decent infrastructure is another. We need both.

Bikes are considerably cheaper than the drugs and the treatment that the NHS has to provide to obese people.

Overall cost of obesity to the NHS is around £4bn, estimated to rise next year to over £6bn.

Bariatric surgery alone costs £32 million pa. Diabetes treatment costs around £700 million pa. There is the increase in knee and hip surgery, provision of mobility scooters and the every increasing number of prescriptions for high blood pressure.

The wider cost to the UK economy is around £27bn (Foresight Report).

Not to mention the 30,000 people that die prematurely each year of obesity-related conditions.

Bikes are one thing, decent infrastructure is another. We need both.

Bikes are considerably cheaper than the drugs and the treatment that the NHS has to provide to obese people.

Overall cost of obesity to the NHS is around £4bn, estimated to rise next year to over £6bn.

Bariatric surgery alone costs £32 million pa. Diabetes treatment costs around £700 million pa. There is the increase in knee and hip surgery, provision of mobility scooters and the every increasing number of prescriptions for high blood pressure.

The wider cost to the UK economy is around £27bn (Foresight Report).

Not to mention the 30,000 people that die prematurely each year of obesity-related conditions.

Bikes are one thing, decent infrastructure is another. We need both.

So CB wants the overstretched NHS to give away free bikes when their staff are over worked and under paid and their health is suffering... I usually have respect for CB but he is wrong on this.

Plenty of sceptics on the Daily Mail website with this same press release, people moaning about their taxes being misspent as per usual, overlooking the fact that people getting heart bypass surgeries and diabetes medicines etc. on the NHS costs many times more than chucking a few cheapo £300 bikes at them in some effort to tackle the obesity crisis in this country. Unless we're going to just let people die from their life choices, saying fat people shouldn't get rewarded with freebies for being fat is a false economy.
Also frankly I'd rather some British bike manufacturers got this contract to provide NHS bikes than tax dodging big pharmas like Pfizer continuing to profit off their semi-toxic pills.

I have some sympathy with the people arguing that the NHS shouldn't pay for bikes. However, Boardman's broader argument - that obesity is very expensive for the NHS - is surely correct.

Whilst we can argue over the details, Boardman is the best cycling advocate we have, and I hope he keeps making his points, and more politicians start listening.

maybe he is trying to flog more of his bikes

I am generally a big supporter of Chris Boardman and his arguments and policies BUT I agree with Cavmem1. We need to stop this nonsense, why should an already stretched NHS pay for bikes? If these people (the target audience) had any motivation at all would they not just grab themselves a cheap but working secondhand bike (maybe £30?). Personal responsibility people, I'd almost go so far to say that the better route is to withdraw free NHS entitlement for certain people if they're not helping themselves and putting in effort to remedy their situation. An example is an otherwise healthy person who has eaten themselves into obesity and can't be arsed to do exercise or change diet. This doesn't mean we shouldn't offer reasonable help/support/advice for people who want to help themselves and are taking responsibility. As a nation we seem obsessed with mothering lazy people and not always helping those that deserve it. Just my personal opinion.

I've seen a study that put the savings on NHS budgets as £1 per new mile walked or cycled. While there is a moral issue with "assistance" for things that people can do for themselves, the purely financial side could come out with NHS money for bikes (or infrastructure) being value for money.

I'm sorry but I fail to see why my taxes should pay for someone to have a bike,
It's simple get off your arse and walk.
It costs nothing and will over time produce benefits, then when you can go for a run and lo and behold you are exercising and losing weight.
The Nhs should not be for this or sex changes or gastric band ops.
This crap has to stop.
When are people going to take responsibilities for their own life choices?

Free bikes on the NHS won't get any more people riding - there are millions of unused bikes in sheds/garages all over the country - it is the attitude of many that cycling is something you do when you are young and can't afford to run a car. If people really want to lose weight they will do so (barring the few who have real medical conditions that prevent them doing so), they just have to believe that they will benefit from it and that the benefit will outweigh the effort. We need to stop saying 'do what you like through your life and the free NHS service will pick up the tab to try and put you right when you get sick'.

SideBurn wrote:

How morbidly obese would I need to be do you think?

Obese enough to benefit from regular cycling, but not so obese the bike collapses underneath you...

Chris is right of course that barriers to mass cycling need to be removed, but the cost of a bike is not really a barrier. The lack of infrastructure is.

Would this mean I could get a Pinarello Dogma on prescription
Or maybe a De Rosa King RS
How morbidly obese would I need to be do you think?

Agree with 'must be mad'. Remove some extreme exceptions and most people are prepared to buy a bike, what is putting people off is the lack of infrastructure, the bias towards cars, the attitude of some drivers (and some cyclists). I suspect most of these people he is trying to target are going to be motorists so if you can afford to run a car, the savings introduced by replacing some journeys offset some of the running costs.

There are plenty of other exercise alternatives for the overweight. walking, taking the stairs, it all helps.

I think Chris is doing a great job but I think this is taking things too far and is adding extra burden to NHS costs. People need to take responsibility for themselves more, the nanny state is ruining this country.

For a more sensible response - I don't think that the price of bikes is a barrier to getting people cycling.

Getting the infrastructure in place so people can fee safe IS a barrier - and perhaps cycling lessons from the NHS might be do-able.

One point I would like to make - my wife would like to cycle, but doesn't have the sense of balance/fitness for a bicycle just yet. However she would love to have a tricycle to get about on - but when we look for options, adult tricycles seem difficult to get hold of and prohibitively expensive...

Instead of free, how about a bike rental for the price of an NHS subscription?

There is certainly logic to Boardman's idea.

Give out the free bikes to all - but stipulate they can only be ridden in the new Forest.......

He has a point, although I can just see the bikes being sold for a few quid instead.

As usual speaking sense, it won't win votes though.

Whereas the government does allocate police time to dealing with people driving in the middle lane, clearly in their eyes a massive cause of social ill.