Over 15 years ago the fitness industry adopted the PAR-Q (Pre Activity Readiness Questionnaire) which was developed to help fitness or leisure facility operators assess if it was safe for a person to embark on a new exercise or fitness programme. Over the years, the PAR-Q became a barrier to exercise, with over 5% of new exercisers being turned away for often inappropriate reasons.
The Health Commitment Statement™ (or HCS) developed by EIDO reflects government health policy and legal trends, which aim to shift responsibility for personal health from a fitness or leisure facility to the user. The HCS sets out what fitness or leisure facility operators and users can reasonably expect from each other in regards to the health of the user.
“The health and wellbeing world has changed enormously since PAR-Q’s were first developed in Canada, over 15 years ago” said David Stalker, FIA’s COO, at the launch of the new HCS. “We believe that the HCS will help underpin the Department of Health’s physical activity engagement strategy, save PCTs and GPs millions in prescription charges, remove a frequent barrier to exercise for consumers and help get more people, more active, more often. This long overdue initiative could well prove one of the major milestones in our evolution from health and fitness operators to public health delivery partner.”
Commenting for EIDO Healthcare, Owain Tudor, Director of Product Development said “Our remit was to update the health and fitness industry on Department of Health Guidelines, legislation and case law, while promoting a joint commitment from the industry and its customers to improving health through exercise. The 24-month development process included consultation with industry operators and health & safety experts prior to approval by the FIA’s Technical Health and Safety Group and the Code of Practice Working Group.”
For more information on how the HCS™ can benefit your gym and your gym users, please contact the FIA on 020 7420 8560 or visit their website http://www.fia.org.uk.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 12:35 pm and is filed under New Developments, Patient information. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
