Budget gym operator Xercise4Less has launched a £1 per month gym membership for a year for NHS employees to help them stay fit.

Staff can register online for the membership using a valid NHS email address between Wednesday 14 and Friday 16 December.

NHS employees will then be invited to purchase their membership through an NHS portal between Tuesday 20 and Wednesday 21 December.

At ukactive’s national summit last month, NHS England’s chief executive Simon Stevens urged

leisure centres and gyms to begin discussions with their local health organisations in a bid to help tackle obesity among NHS staff.

Stevens told delegates that the NHS has a “deep vested interest” in the leisure and activity sector being a success, not only for the wider public but also for NHS staff.

The NHS is Europe’s largest employer, with more than 1.3 million members of staff. A survey has found obesity to be the most significant self-reported health problem among its staff, with nearly 700,000 members of the workforce estimated to be overweight or obese.

Announcing the £1 per month membership, Simon Tutt, Xercise4Less chief executive officer, said: “The NHS is a great, beloved British institution and their hard working professionals often work tirelessly and thanklessly to help those in need.

“We wanted to take this opportunity to give something back and leave a working legacy from the success we have enjoyed, to say thank you to hard working professionals of the NHS while encouraging them to embrace a healthier lifestyle.”

Steven Ward, ukactive executive director, said: “The modern workplace has been stripped of physical activity and this is taking a huge toll on workers’ health, with inactive employees up to 60 per cent more likely to meet an early grave.

“We need innovative and proactive solutions to tackle this modern epidemic, so it’s great to see NHS England - Europe’s biggest employer – utilising the offer from the one of the country’s leading gym chains to improve workers’ health.

“With its unrivalled exercise facilities and expertise, the physical activity sector has a huge role to play in mobilising Britain’s workforce and hopefully this collaboration with the NHS will see healthy habits cascade to the wider population.”

Xercise4Less has 45 clubs across the UK.