The NHS should move £100m (US$129.4m, €116.3m) from its drug budget into a physical activity pot, according to public health specialist and author Sir Muir Gray.

In an interview in the latest issue of Health Club Management, Sir Muir said that the activity agenda had been neglected for 40 years and that preventative healthcare measures were essential in saving the NHS.

He said: "What I'm therefore proposing is that we shift £100m out of the NHS drug budget and into an activity budget - putting £100m of additional funding into prevention."

Sir Muir, who is an Oxford University professor and consultant in public health at Oxford University Hospital Trust, said the cash would be used at local level for community development, with personal trainers being taken out into communities to run activity programmes.

"This is where health clubs and gyms could get involved," he said. "There's no 'maybe' about it: we should be getting trainers into bridge clubs, bingo halls, old people's clubs, lunch clubs - the places where older people are meeting."

Sir Muir, whose latest book is Sod Sitting, Get Moving!, said he was in discussions with Age UK about on how to reach out to older people who spend lots of time at home.