The CAP Sant Pere will be the first primary care center in Reus to use the public Ganxeta bicycle for home visits by healthcare personnel. The City Council and the Institut Català de la Salut have signed an agreement to launch a six-month pilot program with free use of this service.
The initiative transfers a system designed for daily urban mobility to healthcare, and does so in a particularly dispersed area. CAP staff will have to cover travel between homes in neighborhoods such as Sol i Vista or Pelai by bicycle, with a specific pass that extends the usage time from 30 to 120 minutes.
The CAP Sant Pere will test a pass for up to 120 minutes for six months
The agreement between the council and the ICS seeks to promote sustainable mobility and healthy habits among the center's workers. The trial will allow healthcare personnel to use the Ganxeta for free on their professional trips.
Mireia García Villarrúbia, a doctor at CAP Sant Pere, frames the project's usefulness within the distribution of the area served by the center.
"The Ganxeta gives us a lot of ease of movement and agility. It allows us to move quickly between homes" - Mireia García Villarrúbia, doctor at CAP Sant Pere
García Villarrúbia adds that the CAP's area of influence is very dispersed and includes neighborhoods such as Sol i Vista or Pelai. This distribution of visits is one of the elements that the City Council and the ICS will test during the initial period.
On behalf of the ICS, Olga Ochoa, manager of Primary and Community Care in Camp de Tarragona, maintains that the use of bicycles fits with the healthcare activity and with the prevention message conveyed by the health system.
"By using the Ganxeta, we not only take care of our health, but we also promote healthy habits and set an example" - Olga Ochoa, manager of Primary and Community Care of the ICS in Camp de Tarragona
The Ganxeta exceeds 177,000 trips and will add Bellissens in July
The rollout comes as the public bicycle completes two years of operation in the city. With data from May, the service has accumulated more than 177,000 trips and exceeds 4,700 unique users registered on the app.
Sandra Guaita, mayor of Reus, states that the project must improve the mobility of workers in the city center and extend sustainable mobility from the health facilities themselves. The agreement also includes talks, workshops, and activities open to the public, as well as awareness campaigns and promotion of healthy routes.
Daniel Marcos, councilor for Mobility and president of Reus Mobilitat i Serveis, has announced that the new Bellissens station will foreseeably come into operation in July. The new point will cover the university area and the Renfe station.
If the trial offers good results during the first semester, the municipal government will consider extending the model to other health centers in Reus. The agreement sets a first evaluation after six months of the pilot's operation.
Daniel Marcos also specified that the Bellissens station will have to directly cover the surroundings of the university and the Renfe station foreseeably during the month of July.