Bend the knees, point your feet out, extend your arms and waddle. The perfect recipe to look like an idiot? Or the NHS’s critical advice to stay safe this winter?
The health service unleashed a flurry of penguin-themed messages in the last week, urging Brits to adopt the birds’ ponderous waddle to stay safe in icy conditions.
This advice was issued as the UK was plunged into frigid -10C (14F) conditions, with ice and snow wreaking havoc across the country.
The logic is that walking-like a penguin keeps a person’s centre of gravity over their feet reducing the chance of nasty trips or falls that might land someone in A&E.
But Brits were quick to mock and criticize the advice.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) was one of the biggest pushers of penguin messaging earlier this week
Some stated they’d rather take the fall than the blow to their pride, whilst thinktanks bemoaned the NHS’s ‘creating its own Ministry of Silly Walks’ and focusing on ‘silly slogans and preposterous videos’.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) was one of the biggest pushers of penguin messaging, even featuring a video guide on how to adopt the avian gait.
Dr Emilia Crighton, director for public health at the health board, said: ‘While it might seem silly to walk or waddle like a penguin, the alternative may be a nasty injury or even time in hospital.
‘Remember, when it comes to getting around on ice, penguins know best, so when you’re out and about in the next few days, adopting the penguin stance is a really effective way to move without falling.’
NHSGGC wasn’t alone in urging Brits to walk like a flightless bird.
MailOnline found other Scottish NHS health boards like NHS Lanarkshire, NHS Tayside and NHS Grampian all issued similar advice.
Christopher Snowdon, head of lifestyle economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs, a right-wing thinktank, said NHS officials should spend their resources more wisely.
‘NHS mandarins seem more interested in creating silly slogans and preposterous videos than providing healthcare,’ he said.
‘While this might play to their strengths, the public would prefer the government to provide a functioning A&E and grit the pavements.’
Maxwell Marlow, director of research at fellow thinktank the Adam Smith Institute also wasn’t a fan.
‘As we have long argued, state-run public health is a slippery slope towards worse resource usage,’ he said.
But it wasn’t alone NHS Lanarkshire also joined the trend adding that those who are ‘struggling to walk safely’ should ‘reconsider their journey’
NHS Tayside was another advising the public to adopt an avian gate to avoid slipping
NHS Grampian issued this video featuring a cartoon penguin with the same advice
‘As we can see, the NHS has now created its own Ministry of Silly Walks, despite the public never asking for it.’
They weren’t alone in their criticism, with many other Brits taking to social media to lampoon the advice.
One user, going by DaleBhoy on X, formerly known as Twitter, said: ‘I’d rather fall on my arse in front of 100 folk than walk like a penguin past 1 stranger.’
Others compared the waddling gait to ‘running to the loo when the curry kicks in’.
Some Brits weren’t impressed with many, like DaleBhoy, suggesting they’d rather take the fall than the blow to their pride by adopting the walk
Others, like Russel Quirk bemoaned the waste of health service resources gone into producing the messages
In a similar vein Effie Deans used the video highlighted the state of NHS services in Scotland
Others, like Brian Gray Stewart in Aberdeen, questioned why more wasn’t being done to make paths less dangerous in icy conditions in the first place
However, some Brits like X user CivilityWars, defended the messaging as way to help more vulnerable people move more safely outdoors confidently
Fellow X user Effie Deans bemoaned the treatment times in the NHS in Scotland in her criticism.
‘The Scottish NHS is telling you to walk like a penguin, because if you fall over there is zero chance of the Scottish NHS being able to treat you. Is that it?’, she wrote.
Russell Quirk wrote a similar criticism on X: ‘The state of our modern NHS. Spends time (and money) telling people “how to walk like a penguin in the ice”.’
He added: ‘Comedic, nanny state, resource wasting nonsense. No wonder it’s in crisis.’
Others called for more effective measures to help elderly Brits feel safer when out in cold weather.
One user from Aberdeen called Brian Gray Stewart wrote: ‘How about some effective snow/ice clearance instead?’
He continued: ‘Pavements have been effectively ignored for a very long time. Most of my elderly neighbours are virtual prisoners in these conditions.’
But some Brits defended the NHS issuing this kind of advice, calling it a low cost and effort way of potentially helping vulnerable Brits avoid a nasty fall.
One user, going by the name of CivilityWars wrote about their own experience when being more vulnerable to accidents after breaking an ankle.
NHS trusts in Scotland have previously issued the same odd edict, instructing people to walk like a penguin and keep their weight over their standing leg as they walk in previous cold snaps, like this example from 2021
Advice was issued as a wave of cold weather swept the UK. Pictured: Ross Fountain in Edinburgh’s Princes Street Gardens is frozen as temperatures plunged
Snow in Scarborough in North Yorkshire as pedestrians battled the icy conditions in the cold snap
‘After surgery it took the best part of a year to fully heal. When you get older your bones are more brittle and you feel more vulnerable when out walking- especially in snow and ice,’ they wrote on X.
‘If it gives them more confidence to go out it is money well spent.’
This isn’t the first time the NHS has issued its walk like a penguin advice with trusts having published similar messaging during previous cold snaps.
While the NHS is happy to encourage people to walk like a penguin, policies on using a penguin-style belly slide to rapidly move across slippery surfaces, or how best to avoid getting eaten by orcas, remains unclear.
