Bend your knees, point your feet outward, straighten your arms and waddle. The perfect recipe for looking like an idiot? Or the critical advice from the NHS to stay safe this winter?
The health service has issued a flood of penguin-themed messages in the past week, urging Brits to adopt the birds’ lumbering waddle to stay safe in freezing conditions.
The advice was issued as Britain entered frigid conditions of -10ºC (14F), with ice and snow wreaking havoc across the country.
The logic is that walking like a penguin keeps a person’s center of gravity above his or her feet, reducing the chance of a trip or fall that could land someone in the emergency room.
But the British were quick to mock and criticize the advice.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) was one of the biggest supporters of penguin messaging earlier this week
Some declared that they would rather take the fall than the blow to their pride, while think tanks bemoaned the fact that the NHS has set up ‘its own Ministry of Crazy Walks’ and has focused on ‘silly slogans and ridiculous videos’ .
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) has been one of the biggest proponents of penguin messaging, even including a video guide on how to adopt the bird corridor.
Dr. Emilia Crighton, director of public health at the health board, said: ‘While it may seem strange to walk or waddle like a penguin, the alternative could be a nasty injury or even hospital admission.
‘Remember that penguins know best when it comes to moving around on ice, so if you’re out and about in the next few days, adopting the penguin pose is a really effective way to move without falling.’
NHSGGC was not alone in urging the British to walk like a flightless bird.
MailOnline found that other Scottish NHS health boards, such as NHS Lanarkshire, NHS Tayside and NHS Grampian, all gave similar advice.
Christopher Snowdon, head of lifestyle economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs, a right-wing think tank, said NHS officials need to spend their resources more wisely.
“NHS mandarins seem more interested in making silly slogans and ridiculous videos than providing healthcare,” he said.
“While this could strengthen their strengths, the public would prefer that the government provide a functioning emergency room and tidy up the sidewalks.”
Maxwell Marlow, research director at fellow think tank the Adam Smith Institute, was also not a fan.
“As we have long argued, state-run public health is a slippery slope to poorer resource use,” he said.
But it wasn’t the only NHS Lanarkshire to also join the trend, adding that those ‘struggling to walk safely’ should ‘reconsider their journey’
NHS Tayside was another to advise the public to adopt a bird gate to prevent slips
NHS Grampian has released this video featuring a cartoon penguin with the same advice
‘As we can see, the NHS has now created its own Ministry of Crazy Walks, despite the public never asking for it.’
They were not alone in their criticism, with many other Britons taking to social media to mock the advice.
A user named DaleBhoy on
Others compared the staggering gait to ‘running to the toilet when the curry starts’.
Some Brits were unimpressed with many, like DaleBhoy, suggesting they would rather take the fall than take the blow to their pride by adopting the walk.
Others, like Russell Quirk, lamented the waste of healthcare resources put into producing the messages
In a similar vein, Effie Deans used the video highlighting the state of NHS services in Scotland
Others, like Brian Gray Stewart in Aberdeen, wondered why more wasn’t done to make trails less dangerous in icy conditions in the first place
However, some Brits, such as X user CivilityWars, defended the messages as a way to help vulnerable people move more safely outside their homes
Fellow X user Effie Deans complained about treatment times in the NHS in Scotland.
‘The Scottish NHS says you should walk like a penguin because if you fall there is zero chance the Scottish NHS will be able to treat you. Is that it?,” she wrote.
Russell Quirk wrote a similar critique of X: ‘The state of our modern NHS. Spends time (and money) telling people ‘how to walk like a penguin on ice’.’
He added: “Comedy, nanny state, resource-consuming nonsense. No wonder it is in crisis.”
Others called for more effective measures to help older Brits feel safer when outside in cold weather.
A user from Aberdeen called Brian Gray Stewart wrote: ‘How about some effective snow/ice clearing?’
He continued: ‘Pavements have been effectively ignored for a long time. Most of my elderly neighbors are virtual prisoners in these conditions.’
But some Britons defended the NHS issuing this kind of advice, calling it a cheap and effortless way to potentially help vulnerable Britons avoid a nasty fall.
One user, named CivilityWars, wrote about his own experience of being more vulnerable to accidents after breaking an ankle.
NHS trusts in Scotland have previously issued the same strange edict, telling people to walk like a penguin and keep their weight on their standing leg while walking in previous cold snaps, such as this example from 2021
Advice was issued as a wave of cold weather swept across Britain. Pictured: The Ross Fountain in Edinburgh’s Princes Street Gardens frozen over as temperatures dropped
Snow in Scarborough in North Yorkshire as pedestrians battled icy conditions during the cold snap
‘After the operation it took almost a year for it to heal completely. As you get older, your bones become more brittle and you feel more vulnerable when walking, especially in snow and ice,” they wrote on X.
‘If it gives them more confidence to go out, it’s money well spent.’
This isn’t the first time the NHS has issued ‘walk like a penguin’ advice, with trusts having published similar messages during previous cold snaps.
While the NHS is keen to encourage people to walk like a penguin, policy on using a penguin-style belly slide to move quickly over slippery surfaces, or how best to avoid being eaten by killer whales, remains unclear.