Catalina García announces the creation of the Andalusian Strategy for Health Promotion and Prevention

In the Health Commission of the Parliament of Andalusia, the Minister of Health and Consumer Affairs Catalina Garcia, presented Andalusian Strategy for Health Promotion and Prevention, a project that has been evolving for several months. Its goal is to provide comprehensive health care that will facilitate research and enable the transfer of results.

“This Strategy not only provides an opportunity to integrate efforts undertaken in health promotion and disease prevention between all sectors and entities involved, it also provides an opportunity to implement a joint, proportionate and, above all, orderly approach,” he noted, while emphasizing that this would be a “milestone” in the development of improvement actions. quality of life.

Garcia said that preventive health is one of the five pillars on which Andalusia’s new health model is based, which is complemented by health promotion, attention to chronic diseases, humanization and research. Regarding prevention, he advocated education and information about the importance of a healthy lifestyle, since prevention is an everyday tool for human physical and mental development.

Prevention, including vaccines, screenings and activities aimed at emotional well-being. “All this should coexist harmoniously at different stages of our lives,” he added.

Referring to vaccination, stressed that recent history has shown that this is the most effective way to prevent infectious diseases. For this reason, Andalusia has reportedly made unprecedented commitments to prevention: both in terms of the investments made and the breadth of the vaccine catalogue.

Thus, since 2018, expenses have increased by 180 percent, increasing from From 42 million euros to 118 million this past year. By 2024, this figure will rise to 133 million. “It is this investment that allows Andalusia to have one of the most advanced vaccination schedules in the country, making us a benchmark in active prevention policies.”

In this sense, four important events have been identified for 2024: an increase in the risk groups for herpes zoster to the 65-year-old cohort; dose change vaccination against meningococcus C To meningococcus ACWY 4 month old children; an increase for the third consecutive year in the 20-valent conjugate pneumococcal cohort among adults aged 60 to 73 years who had not yet received either the 13-valent or the 20-valent; and switching to a single dose of human papillomavirus, aimed at systematically vaccinating 12-year-old boys and girls.

Cancer screening

During her speech, the consultant also spoke about cancer screenings, whose preventive measures are part of the Strategy against Cancer in Andalusia, approved in 2021, and for which this Ministry has allocated more than 50 million euros in the last three years.

For breast cancer screening, coverage was significantly expanded in the second half of 2023. If you have previously been invited to women from 50 to 69 years old, the test has now been extended from 47 to 71 years. “And in the future we want to expand these tests from 40 to 75 years,” he said.

In 2023, he said, they participated in this program. more than 410,000 Andalusian women, of which 42,000 were referred to their hospital referral center to complete diagnostic testing, which detected 1,355 cancers at an early stage of the disease. In particular, the Andalusian Health Service is promoting the improvement of diagnostic devices through the acquisition of 36 new tomosynthesis mammographs, four of which are in a new location.

Regarding colon screening, he stressed that it has received an important “support” with the arrival of the current Andalusian government, as coverage has increased from 50 percent to almost one hundred percent. “When we arrived in 2019, Andalusia was the only Spanish community that did not carry out colon screening of the population.and that, thanks to an investment of more than €10 million, 2.3 million people were invited to take the test at home.”

About 1.2 million people, 51 percent of those invited, responded to the invitation to be screened for colon cancer by taking the test. Of these, 9,700 were recommended to undergo colonoscopy in 2023 to complete a test that could detect cancer in people. more than 700 people. In total, more than 6,500 people were diagnosed with colon cancer in 2023.

Regarding lung screening, Andalusia, through the Virgen Macarena Hospital in Seville and the Northern Health District of Aljarafe-Seville, is participating in the Cassandra project for lung cancer screening using low-dose CT. Regarding cervical cancer screening, he insisted that 2024 will mark a new milestone in screening programs in Andalusia, as population-based cervical cancer screening will be included in July for all women aged 25 to 65 years.

Prevention of emotional well-being

Finally, Catalina Garcia emphasized mental health problems. About half of mental health problems begin before age 14, and more than 70 percent begin before age 18.

For this reason, the ministry has trained school nurses to identify early signs of mental disorders and suicidal behavior or thoughts.

Regarding the attention to adolescence in Andalusia, Catalina García also recalled the important steps taken in recent years. “When we arrived in Andalusia, differentiated care for adults and minors in short-term psychiatric hospitalization units only existed in Jaen and Almeria. And it was vital to expand it to the rest of the provinces to offer quality care and ensure that these patients receive decent care,” he concluded.

---

You may also like…