GPs call for more trees to help ease NHS pressures as survey outlines health benefits of access to nature

The wider benefits of nature have long been acknowledged, with studies finding that access to the countryside can ease anxiety or result in better lung health through cleaner fresh air.

Now, under new research by the Woodland Trust, GPs have said more trees could help reduce the financial burden on the NHS.

In a poll of 255 doctors from practices across the country, 94 per cent backed calls for more trees around urban schools to combat lung diseases like asthma.

Some 70 per cent said they should be able to prescribe "time out" in nature, adding that policymakers must prioritise the environment to improve the health of the nation.

Dr Darren Moorcroft, chief executive of the Woodland Trust said: “This powerful research, from trusted medical professionals, shows the need to prioritise the environment to reduce the burden on the NHS and save lives.

“Policymakers must take heed of these results. A startling 96 per cent of GPs - who are on the frontline of healthcare in this country - want environmental issues moved up the political agenda.

"They recognise the potentially life-giving benefits of a cleaner, greener world, ever more important due to the greater effects of climate change - and want their patients to be able to access those benefits more easily.”

The conservation charity's survey found some 77 per cent of GPs believe more trees could help reduce the financial burden on the NHS.

Trish Goodwin, from the Bolton GP Federation, said the findings show just how much GPs value the role of nature and the environment in shaping good health.

"From our perspective, people that attend green projects, such as walking in rural locations, report an improvement in physical health symptoms, and state that there is a significant improvement in their mental wellbeing," she said.

"It is critical that patients living in urban and high pollution areas have access to woodland and green spaces to improve both their physical and mental health."

The Woodland Trust is campaigning for more trees to tackle the twin threats of climate change and biodiversity loss.

As the world sees more extreme weather events, with more storms and heatwaves seen even in Yorkshire, it argues that trees can help reduce temperatures on the ground and potentially save thousands of lives. Targeted funding and support is needed, campaigners argue.

And while it will take more than trees to ultimately solve the climate crisis, added Dr Moorcroft, they do help to make the world worth living in. And with a general election looming, the Woodland Trust is calling on political parties to make increasing native tree cover a long-term target.

"Woods and trees make us healthy and happy," he said. "They lock up carbon, fight the effects of climate change, improve our health and wellbeing and reduce pollution and flooding, protecting nature, people and our planet.