(left to right) Dinah Iceton, patient, Dr Mike Keavney,
Anna McAuliffe, Instructor, Anne Roberts. Practice Manager,
and Dr Mark Hodgson

PATIENTS at a village GP practice in the northern dales will be the first in North Yorkshire to benefit from a personally tailored exercise scheme being run in their own surgery.

Schemes where GPs and health professionals refer patients for a healthy dose of exercise are already successfully in operation throughout Richmondshire and Hambleton, with suitable candidates being encouraged to take up a course of exercise, tailored to their individual requirements, at local gyms and swimming pools.

Now doctors at the Aldbrough St John practice, near Richmond, have taken the scheme a stage further, by inviting the gym instructor to hold the scheme in the surgery.

"Exercise Referral is going from strength to strength, with more than 100 people benefiting from the scheme in the last year, and more than 70 Health Professionals signed up to the initiative", says Emma Davis, Physical Activity Co-ordinator for Hambleton and Richmondshire District Councils and North Yorkshire Primary Care Trust.

"This latest development is a first, as with no gym or swim facilities close by, we are literally bringing the exercise directly to the residents."

Funded by the Local Strategic Partnership, the instructor will provide two three-hour fitness sessions per week in the new gym and exercise room within the surgery.

"Dr Hodgson and Dr Keavney raised £3,000 for the gym equipment back in 2003 by completing the Swaledale Marathon", explains Anne Roberts, Practice Manager.

"I'm delighted our new fitness instructor will now be able to put the room and equipment to good use for the benefit of local people."