The hydrotherapy pool at the Canberra Hospital is due to close in June 2019. Residents living in the Canberra’s south will need to travel to Bruce to access many of the hydrotherapy services which will now be provided at the University of Canberra Hospital.
If you would like the ACT Government to keep the hydrotherapy pool at the Canberra Hospital open and maintained until a new dedicated hydrotherapy pool is built on the south side of Canberra, sign the petition at
https://epetitions.act.gov.au/CurrentEPetitions.aspx
The therapeutic benefits of water have been used throughout history for people’s wellness.
“Warm water melts muscle tension, increases range of movement, stimulates circulation, reduces swelling, soothes stress, eases pain, calms nerve sensitivity, decongests the respiratory tract, purifies pores and promotes sleep” Caroline Robertson wrote for the Wellbeing magazine.
It is vital that hydrotherapy pool at the Canberra Hospital is retained to provide accessible hydrotherapy services to the residents in Canberra’s south.
I have used the hydrotherapy pool at Canberra Hospital. It is a great facility and the staff are terrific. While an upgrade may be warranted it should certainly not close. More and more retirement complexes are being built on the southside – 2 in Narrabundah, one in Farrer and several in Tuggeranong. While the new UCAN Rehab Hospital facility is fabulous, the people on the Southside should not be denied convenient access to a rehab pool. The closure would be very short-sighted. If we can afford a tram, then surely an affluent city of 400000plus can support two hydrotherapy pools!
I’m so glad that the WCCC is on board with this petition. The issue is actually worse than noted above because apart from the distance and inconvenience for south siders, the University of Canberra pool is only open to the public by appointment and at lunchtimes and is otherwise reserved for patients across Canberra being rehabilitated following hospital procedures. CH users have been advised that the UC pool is already fully utilised, in fact there’s a waiting period of several months for rehabilitation patients. So where are the south side people to go? Minister Fitzharris has indicated publicly that she will work with Arthritis ACT to find alternate venues for those of us currently using the CH pool however we understand there are few, if any,realistic and accessible alternatives.
The closure will impact on all the current and potential users of the CH pool but some more so because of their age, severity of chronic illness, level of mobility and pain and possibly financial limitations. The alternatives to CH for our use on the South side of town are extremely limited. There is a possibility that a few more Arthritis ACT people could go to John James pool, but only a very limited number. Also John James pool is smaller, often cooler and is shallower and therefore limits the exercises that can be done. There’s a small number of private heated pools in the area but even if there was availability, and the temperature was adequate, the cost would be much higher than current charges.
WCCC Comment
Council is very concerned with the proposed closure of the hydrotherapy pool and the gulf that will leave to these services in the south of Canberra and is joining other Community Councils in writing to the Chief Minister expressing these concerns and asking that the pool remain open until there is an alternative available to those in the south of Canberra.