For hospital officials, it?s a costly pit. For patrons, it?s a positive life-changer.
But when it comes to the hydrotherapy pool at St. Joseph?s Hospital ? which is slated to close in early July ? it?s hard to find any solid middle ground.
About 400 people ? including about 300 hospital patients and 90 community patrons ? regularly use the special pool, which is equipped with handrails and filled with water heated to a toasty 33.8 C. Users visit the pool to help recover from hip, knee and shoulder surgery, as well as relieve symptoms connected to ills like arthritis, fibromyalgia and osteoporosis.
And these participants ? many of them women in their 70s and 80s ? use words such as ?depressing,? ?devastating? and ?terrified? to describe their reaction to the recently announced closing.
Before using the pool, 83-year-old Lorraine Gray says she couldn?t climb into bed without her husband?s help ? but now she can. Hilda Petch, 79, says exercising in the pool has allowed her to move around without a cane or walker.
?I?ve seen people who, when they started at the pool, were barely able to walk,? says Petch, who?s been attending twice-weekly classes at the facility for about 10 years. ?And within six months . . . things start to work again.?
Carol Brock, who credits the pool with maintaining her strength and endurance, says she felt ?sentenced? when told of the pool?s closing.
?Who wants to go back to more pain and less mobility?? asks the 73-year-old Londoner. ?Prior to using the pool, I was very challenged to be productive. Now I live a very full life.?
But changes are flowing.
Hospital officials say the pool, built in 1999, costs about $25,000 a year to operate ? a figure that doesn?t include frequent repairs and renovations. And though those yearly costs are relatively low, hospital officials are striving to cut $6.3 million from annual expenses.
?We had a budget target to meet,? says Karen Perkin, vice- president of clinical programs at St. Joseph?s Health Care London. ?And we had to look at our capacity to meet the needs for patients in our programs.?
But she says that?s only half the story. The other half is that in this cost-cutting climate, hospitals must ensure they aren?t duplicating services offered elsewhere.
?We can?t be all things,? says Perkin. ?We cannot continue in the same manner, given current resources. . . . And so the community is a partner.?
Hospital officials provided pool-users with a list of similar facilities, including pools at Carling Heights Optimist Community Centre, Chelsey Park Retirement Community and Good Life Fitness.
But patrons insist these pools don?t fit their needs, mainly because the water is too cold and the instructors teach ?aqua-fit? classes, which are too strenuous.
Ambulatory-surgery co-ordinator Lynn Stewart, however, says St. Joe?s is searching for more alternative sites, as well as working to convince community operators to adapt to demands ? like raising the water temperature and offering gentler workout sessions.
?It?s going to be a challenge to find a pool that is going to be exactly the same as what St. Joe?s has,? says Stewart. ?But we?re working with our (community) partners to meet most of their needs.?
?I?m confident there are options that exist,? adds Perkin.
None of this, of course, will likely satisfy Londoners who rely on the St. Joe?s pool to stave off future problems and procedures.
The pool?s closing will pose difficult challenges to current users.
And that?s regrettable.
But faced with a provincial debt of nearly $12 billion and a burgeoning health-care bill, these pool-users are the unfortunate victims of a wave of fiscal restraint that?s destined to wash away many familiar habits.
Ian Gillespie is the Free Press city columnist.
ian.gillespie@sunmedia.ca
twitter.com/Ian@LFPress
Source: http://www.lfpress.com/2013/04/04/the-city-popular-pool-drained-by-cuts
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