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Patients referred to social prescribing are more likely to seek healthcare in the short term, but could end up needing their GP less often within a year, a new study by University of Manchester researchers suggests.

The researchers analysing the records of more than 1.4 million people found that social prescribing 鈥� where patients are referred to support such as community groups, exercise schemes or financial advice 鈥� was linked to an early rise in healthcare use, followed by a small drop in GP appointments.

The study was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and published in eClinical Medicine.

Social prescribing became a key part of NHS plans in 2019, with thousands of link workers recruited across England to connect patients with community support.

It has become a central part of NHS efforts to address the wider social factors that influence health, including loneliness, housing problems, debt and inactivity.

Despite the scheme's rapid expansion, until now there has been little robust evidence showing whether social prescribing affects NHS demand, healthcare use or costs.

The findings come from one of the largest studies of its kind, using anonymised NHS records from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD), covering around a quarter of England鈥檚 population.

The research team compared 168,699 patients referred to social prescribing between July 2019 and April 2022 with more than 1.3 million similar patients who were not referred.

In the first six months after referral, patients receiving social prescribing had an average of 2.25 more contacts with healthcare services than those who were not referred 鈥� a rise of around 24%.

The increase was largely driven by more visits to primary care services and attendance at planned outpatient appointments in hospitals.

This, they say, may reflect patients becoming more proactive about managing their health and seeking help for conditions that might previously have gone untreated.

But by one year after referral, the picture had changed.

The increase in healthcare contacts had fallen substantially and patients referred to social prescribing were attending slightly fewer GP appointments than those who had not been referred.

Despite the higher number of healthcare interactions, the overall cost to the NHS was virtually unchanged.

The study found healthcare costs were less than 0.1% higher among referred patients, a difference researchers described as clinically insignificant.

The small increase in spending was mainly linked to additional secondary care admissions.

Lead author from The University of Manchester said: 鈥淥ur findings suggest that social prescribing may encourage people to engage with healthcare services in the short term, particularly with planned and preventative care.鈥�

鈥淚mportantly, we found that this increase did not translate into meaningful increases in overall healthcare costs, and by one year patients were having slightly fewer GP appointments.鈥�

鈥淭his could indicate that social prescribing helps direct people towards more appropriate forms of support while reducing pressure on general practice.鈥�

She added: 鈥淏etter integration between social prescribing data systems and electronic health records will be needed to understand whether patients who fully engage with these services gain even greater benefits.鈥�

Charlotte Osborn-Forde , CEO of the National Academy for Social Prescribing聽 added: "There is now strong evidence that social prescribing leads to improved wellbeing and that it can support people with a range of health conditions.聽

"This research provides useful analysis of how referrals to link workers affected healthcare use during the COVID pandemic, potentially leading to a long-term fall in GP appointments.聽

"It also shows the need for further exploration of how to account for the unmeasured social needs that lead to a referral for social prescribing, and better data on support received after the referral, to track the impact of social prescribing more robustly."

• The paper "Changes in healthcare use and cost associated with referrals to social prescribing link workers in England: a matched case-control cohort study鈥� is published in eClinical Medicine. DOI