The canines that provide support at a Costa del Sol hospital

The dog-assisted therapy programme is now in its sixth year at the Axarquía hospital in Torre del Mar

Eugenio Cabezas

Torre del Mar

Wednesday, 2 April 2025, 12:56

The paediatric and neonatal units of the Axarquía hospital in Torre del Mar on the eastern Costa del Sol has restarted its dog-assisted therapy programme (Terapia Asistida con Perros). The initiative, now in its sixth year, is organised by the Perruneando association which is based in Malaga, and this time it has the support of Sigfrido Fruit and the SATSE nursing union.

The presentation ceremony which took place on Monday 31 March was attended by the Andalusian regional government's spokesperson for health and consumer affairs, Carlos Bautista; manager of the Axarquía health area, Miguel Moreno; manager of Sigfrido Fruit, Sigfrido Molina, and the representative of Perruneando in Malaga, Candela Martínez, who is also the provincial coordinator of the programme, among others.

This dog-assisted therapy programme was implemented in the hospital in 2020 at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and was a pioneering initiative that formed part of its humanisation plan. The objective is to help young patients and healthcare professionals through the participation of a dog intervention in the paediatric and neonatal units.

Bautista thanked all those involved in the programme and highlighted the importance of promoting humanisation strategies in hospitals. He said that the regional health department "has been working for some time now to ensure that health centres are close and friendly, both for professionals who spend many hours of their lives in these centres, and for patients". He added, "This is important in general, it is even more so when we are talking about minors. We work, and we will continue to work, to make the stay of a child as atraumatic as possible both for them and for their families."

Bautista also mentioned the professionals, explaining that "the humanisation plans are for both patients and professionals who deserve to carry out their work in the best conditions, including enjoying a comfortable environment and knowing that they have the necessary support and respect".

Miguel Moreno said that the two dogs involved in the project "make the children more relaxed during different processes that tend to upset them, such as insulin injections and blood tests, and this will be of help both to the patients and to the professionals who carry out these tasks".

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