The Government of the Canary Islands presented this Thursday the 'Canary System for the Prescription of Activity and Physical Exercise' with which Primary Care physicians will be allowed to prescribe physical activity, which is known as 'sports prescription', for those people who can benefit from it.
The agreement signed by the Ministries of Health and Education, Vocational Training, Physical Activity and Sports also seeks to contribute to the promotion of healthy habits among the Canary Island population through physical activity, but will initially focus on those patients with previous pathologies or problems of overweight or obesity.
The heads of Health, Esther Monzón, and Education, Poli Suárez, said at the press conference presenting this initiative that it marks "a milestone in the history of this land, of health and sport" and responds to a "historical demand" of sports professionals.
This project, broadly speaking, will enable Primary Care physicians, who know each of their patients first-hand, to "go beyond simply recommending exercise to their patients, but will also be able to prescribe a personalized guideline to follow."
In this way, the patient who has been prescribed physical exercise will go to active physical exercise units (UAEF), a kind of "sports pharmacies" in which professionals will work to design an individualized plan adapted to their conditions with which to go to training centers.
The vocation of the plan, said Suárez, is that both sports advice and the practice of physical exercise can "be free", although for this it will be necessary to "coordinate with the sector and find the best way to reach all corners of the archipelago", including those municipalities where "there are no sports facilities or are not public".
Agreements with public and private facilities
"It is true that there are town councils or municipalities that do not have the necessary sports infrastructures, so it will be necessary to go to facilities that do not belong to any administration, but to a club or that are private, so it will also be necessary to find a way to put a co-payment or reach agreements with these entities so that the patient can use their facilities for free," he explained.
To launch this project, the Government will allocate "600,000 euros" this year, part of which will come from the 'Next Generation' funds, to design the details of the system and encourage public participation in its development; implement specific training for medical personnel, and implement the technological platform for the digital application that will be used in Primary Care.
This agreement contemplates different lines of action, for which working groups will be created that include both the prescription of exercise individualized and adapted to the patient's circumstances, as well as the creation of a system of care, monitoring and evaluation of the prescribed exercise and physical activity.
Regarding when the first sports pharmacies could be available and when physical activity can be prescribed in health centers, Monzón has assured that this is a "legislature project" and that they hope to be able to function "before 2027".
And the initial target population will be those people who have previous pathologies, heart problems, overweight or obesity, but the intention is to be able to extend it to the "rest of society" gradually.
In that sense, they have detailed that 39.8% of the Canary Island population is overweight and that 17.5% is obese. "Because what it is about, ultimately, is to increase the quality of life of patients and reduce healthcare and pharmaceutical costs," Suárez concluded.
