WE ALL know that cycling is a healthy activity, but for many people working in the NHS it is also a health activity.

About five per cent of vehicle journeys in the city are health-related – patients attending clinics, doctors and nurses doing home visits, hospital transport, ambulances, pathology collections, prescription deliveries and so on.

I am a GP in Oxford and have been using my bike for home visits for 25 years.

I am not alone: well over 50 per cent of city GPs use a bike for visits at least some of the time.

The advantages are obvious – fast and reliable journey times and easy parking. But there are some less obvious ones.

Most importantly, we are giving a message that cycling is a respectable mode of transport and something anyone can do.

Perhaps a few people will be encouraged to start cycling themselves.

One of the pleasant aspects is that we are much more visible to patients we may pass in the street and because it is easy to stop, or at least give a cheery wave, it is an opportunity to engage with them and get a bit of an idea how they are doing.

And we can explore new routes long the river bank, via Willow Walk, or through Radcliffe Square and enjoy the unique sights of Oxford.

We are doing our bit to reduce congestion and pollution as well, and reducing our own stress levels.

Research suggests that city cyclists get less air pollution into their lungs than car drivers.

Cycling improves our physical fitness especially compared to sitting in a car. It doesn’t rain as much as people think, and as a farmer once said to me ‘It’s never as wet as it looks once you are under it’.

Having said that, waterproofs including overshoes are essential, and I never travel without a hankie to make myself presentable when arriving at a patient’s home.

GPs do fewer visits than we used to but district nurses continue to spend their whole day visiting people’s homes.

For them it is more difficult to use a bike as they need to carry quite a lot of equipment but several nurses do their visits by bike when they can.

I hope that more such visits can happen by sharing knowledge and experience.

Perhaps the most exciting change has been the increasing number of cargo bike deliveries in the city.

Pedal and Post now provide a prescription collection and delivery service between several chemists and the various GP premises.

This has reduced the many short van journeys being taken every day for this vital service. Perhaps the pathology specimen collection service will be the next to make the change.

There are disadvantages of course – it isn’t possible to listen to the radio and some of the hills are a bit steep.

But knowing that I can get from Jericho to the other end of Botley Road in 10 minutes whatever happens (apart from punctures which are rare) is a luxury no-one in a car can enjoy.

So smile at the cyclists you see – some of them are the health service in action.