President’s Update August 2017

WHO is hosting an open web-based consultation to develop a draft global action plan to promote physical activity. This consultation and its resulting action plan is a welcome move by the World Health Organisation and, on behalf of its membership, the FSEM (UK) will be responding. In our key policy priorities, we continue to call for a national approach to the application of physical activity in disease prevention:

• Address the treatment and prevention of non-communicable diseases with a new focus on a national preventative strategy including the therapeutic use of physical activity and exercise

This message, backed up with our recommendation to increase Exercise Medicine and physical activity assessment in the NHS, has been an important part of our consultation responses for the UK and devolved governments. Addressing the promotion of physical activity is a global problem, which will ultimately be addressed on a national level and delivered via local partnerships and services. ‘Think globally act locally’, a saying contributed to the Scots town planner Sir Patrick Geddes, has never been more relevant and could be the key to achieving the Five Year Forward View’s ‘radical upgrade in prevention and public health’.

Dr Paul D Jackson