GP focus with Dr Phil Batty

Our GPs are an important part of Bay Health Care Partners and here our GPs and primary care colleagues will have the opportunity to talk about issues and specialities that they are working on or interested in.  This month local GP Dr Phil Batty, of Bay Medical Group, talks to us about the 'Walk with a Doc' initiative. 

In Morecambe, we have started a new ‘Walk with a Doc’ initiative to improve the health and wellbeing of our residents.

Every second and fourth Saturday of the month I will be leading a health talk and walk along Morecambe Prom with my wife Joann who is a nurse at Sedbergh Medical Practice. The initiative aims to bring doctors and patients closer together to get people to move more through walking but also to give people the opportunity to ask any questions they may have about health.

We know that by increasing exercise, even moderately, it may help reduce the risk of many diseases including coronary heart disease, cancer, chronic pain and Type 2 diabetes and all of the outcomes that come with these conditions. If we can encourage people in Morecambe to walk for just 10 minutes a day through initiatives like ‘Walk with a Doc’ we know that we can make a big difference to their lives in terms of helping them to become more active, lose weight and become healthier.

I’d like to see this initiative grow across the Bay and more of my colleagues in primary care adopting this fantastic initiative to give our communities more opportunities to join in and improve their health and wellbeing.

You can read more about the ‘Walk with a Doc’ programme at the Bay Health and Care Partners website here.