New research from the University of Aberdeen, commissioned by Public Health Scotland (PHS) and SEFARI Gateway, has calculated the economic value of NHS Scotland’s outdoor spaces for the first time.

The study, published by SEFARI Gateway, is the first in the world to look at the value of outdoor green spaces within hospitals, health centres, and GP surgeries used by staff, patients, their families, and the public for walking and relaxing.

The team asked people about their visits and how they valued different types of outdoor spaces.

They then followed Office for National Statistics guidelines and used bespoke economic analysis to calculate the value in monetary terms.

The survey of 2,449 adults across all 14 regional NHS Scotland health boards found that people spend roughly 87 million hours a year in NHS outdoor spaces.

And the health benefits from these visits is valued at around £82m a year, which is what it would cost the NHS to provide the same benefits through healthcare services.

The project will contribute to the implementation of the NHS Scotland Climate Emergency and Sustainability Strategy and builds on previous research commissioned by Public Health Scotland and NatureScot.

Dr Neil Chalmers, health economist at PHS, said: “Half of NHS Scotland’s estates comprise of outdoor green spaces with park-like vegetation such as grass and trees.

“These areas are well frequented for walking and relaxing, with our research estimating that approximately half the population visited an NHS Scotland open space in the past year, leading to a total of 122 million estimated annual visits.

“This has a real impact on the mental and physical health of those who visit these areas, as well as a positive knock-on effect on NHS services that can now be visualised in cost savings.

“This research underlines the importance of maintaining quality and accessible outdoor green spaces on the NHS estate in Scotland, so that everyone in society can continue to benefit from them.”

The findings

The report showed that half of the Scottish adult population had visited an NHS Scotland open space in the previous 12 months.

While an estimated 122 million visits are made annually to NHS Scotland open spaces, usage is uneven with a small group of frequent visitors accounting for most visits, while most people visit only occasionally.

Most visits are to local sites, with open spaces located at primary care sites receiving the highest number of visits. This is likely because individuals regularly visit these sites more often.

Most visits to NHS Scotland open spaces last less than 30 minutes, with approximately half occurring with others.

And most users consider these spaces to be of ‘good’ or ‘very good’ quality.

Visits typically involve relaxing, low-impact activities, which together with stated benefits by respondents, suggests that most of the health and wellbeing benefits of these spaces are likely related to mental health.

This confirms that using the exposure-based method is more appropriate than the exercised-based one, which assumes individuals undertake moderate-intense physical activities.

The findings also reveal inequalities in the factors that influence whether an individual uses NHS Scotland open spaces.

Older individuals and those with lower incomes are less likely to visit these spaces, which aligns with trends in general outdoor visit activity in Scotland.

These individuals were also more likely to elicit a lower value for these spaces.

Females are also less likely to visit NHS Scotland open spaces.

The report concludes: “Given the substantial benefits of NHS Scotland’s open spaces, investing in them is likely to generate a net gain for society.

“Future research could further quantify this by comparing the monetary value of these benefits with current maintenance expenses and potential future investment.”