Doctor prescribes museum visit instead of tablets
When the doctor sends patients to the museum: clever health promotion or « thrown money out of the window »?
New approach in health policy: In Neuchâtel, the family doctor can prescribe a walk to the museum instead of tablets. The advocates of the idea hope that the model is going on national school.
Jacques also received the same recipe. The man in his mid -60s had to be operated on in the hospital due to a colon tumor. The operation stressed him because his cardiovascular system is not the best. Jacques was in physiotherapy several times in the weeks before the intervention – and should also go to the museum on medical instruction in order to stimulate movement activities and relax. For this he received no sleeping pills.
Side effects? All are positive!
Paul and Jacques are fictional names. But their stories have happened in Neuchâtel. The city has been taking new ways in health policy: since this February, general practitioners have been able to issue their patients an “ordonnance muséale”.
This grants entry into one of four municipal museums: the Art Museum, the Ethnographic Museum, the Natural History Museum and the Botanical Garden. The side effects are guaranteed to be positive, as the medical recipe lists: « Joy, euphoria, delight ».
The Neuchâtel Kunstmuseum now also serves medical purposes.
