New Road GP Surgery Secures Active Practice Status

To help embed physical activity across the surgery, the Herts Sport & Physical Activity Partnership (HSP) facilitated an interactive afternoon during the New Road Surgery’s Protected Time to Learn. This dedicated time enables staff to develop knowledge beyond core practice areas and engage local partners to enhance healthcare provision. With Active Practice status recently achieved, the session focused on developing how the practice can continue to embed movement across general practice to improve patient outcomes. 

The afternoon began with Active Medicine Training delivered by HSP’s Active Connections, improving staff confidence in discussing the benefits of physical activity with patients and awareness of effective national and local signposting options. The session explored the benefits of moving more, giving staff simple and practical ways to support their patients with being more active. Staff at New Road Surgery demonstrated their commitment to Active Practice principles, highlighting regular use of the Moving More Activity Finder to connect patients with community-based support for long-term health conditions. 

Local partners, Everyone Active and Watford FC Community Sports & Education Trust, also contributed, showcasing a wide range of activity sessions to benefit patients. These included programmes for young people (such as Empower or Youth Link), adults (including the Exercise Referral Scheme, free outdoor gym sessions, and Shape Up) and older adults (e.g., Golden Memories and seated exercise). Leanne Rodriguez-Reid, Activity & Wellbeing Manager at Everyone Active, delivered a short activity taster, demonstrating how simple movement breaks can  effectively increase activity during the working day. 

The session concluded with a HSP-led Active Practice workshop, where staff identified practical actions to continually develop their physical activity support offer. These simple and easy to implement ideas included introducing walking or standing meetings, personally collecting patients from the waiting room, and using waiting room screens to promote seated exercise. 

New Road Surgery is also taking part in the latest staff active challenge hosted on the Active Connections Hub - a funded movement platform available to Primary Care Network members in Hertfordshire. The World Cup-themed challenge sees teams take a virtual journey around tournament stadiums, with New Road Surgery currently sitting in second place. 

HSP’s Active Connections Team are a free to use service, providing simple and effective ways for general practice surgeries to embed physical activity into routine practice. If the content of these sessions are of interest, please reach out via hsphealth@herts.ac.uk.