The health adviser, Blaise Trujilloreported today in the Parliament of the Canary Islands on the pilot project developed by the Canary Islands Health Service for the boost in physiotherapy care in the field of Primary Care and that has allowed the initial deployment of these services in sixteen basic health areas in Gran Canaria and Tenerife and in another eight between Lanzarote and Fuerteventura. The counselor explained that the incorporation of this new professional profile in Primary Care in the Canary Islands is carried out in accordance with the Comprehensive Strategy for Primary and Community Care 2022-2023 and that, since its launch, 2,956 referrals from the Primary Care Physician have been generated. Family to the Physiotherapy professional.
Trujillo specified that during this year the SCS has made a firm commitment to promoting physiotherapy care, especially in the field of Primary Care, not only for care and monitoring of patients with musculoskeletal and respiratory pathologybut also to develop functions of health promotion and disease prevention.
In this sense, he explained that the General Directorate of Assistance Programs of the SCS, in coordination with the Primary Care Management of Gran Canaria and Tenerife, has launched the pilot project that has the advantage of incorporating the Physiotherapy consultation in the centers of health, with the direct referral of patients from the Family Medicine professional to the Physiotherapy professional.
With the implementation of these consultations, the aim is to promote the participation of the physiotherapy professional in preventive activities of education and health promotion among the population, as well as to increase the resolution capacity of physiotherapists, assuming pathologies of low complexity and chronic stable , the assessment of chronic patients with complex pathology and people in a situation of dependency.
Within the clinical processes that are contemplated, those of greater prevalence in the field of Primary Care are included, such as the approach to coxarthrosis, gonarthrosis, low back pain and chronic neck pain, epicondylitis, knee pain, as well as the approach to the patient Mild stable COPD.
For the development of this activity, an Action Guide for the Physiotherapy Consultation in Primary Care has been drawn up, which will be under continuous review, depending on the evolution of the piloting and the deployment of this resource, to improve health care, in coordination with the services involved, such as Rehabilitation Services and Physical Medicine.
The Basic Health Zones with the service
Currently this pilot has already been deployed in the Health Areas of Tenerife and Gran Canaria. In the case of Tenerife, the Physiotherapy Consultations that are distributed in the basic health areas of Guía de Isora, Arona-El Fraile, Granadilla, Candelaria, Añaza, Ofra-Delicias, Barranco Grande-Tincer, Tejina-Tegueste, La Victoria and Orotava-Dehesa.
In the Health Area of Gran Canaria, this service is piloted in the basic health areas of Guanarteme, Puerto, Santa Brígida, Escaleritas, Maspalomas and Gáldar.
In addition, it has already been implemented in all the basic health areas of Lanzarote, where it already works in Mala, Yaiza, Tinajo, Arrecife and Playa Blanca; as in Fuerteventura, where it is available in the health centers of Corralejo, Pájara and Tuineje. The counselor announced that by 2023 the expansion to 44 professionals in the field of Primary Care is contemplated and he specified that the project’s ultimate objective is the implementation of physiotherapy care in Primary Care in all Health Areas of the Autonomous Community, in coordination and integration with existing care, agreeing on the action measures together with the clinical processes that are addressed in the field of Primary Care, where the approach to frailty, among others, will be progressively incorporated.
