LOSS OF AN ESSENTIAL AND HIGHLY VALUED PIECE OF PUBLIC HEALTH INFRASTRUCTURE

The Wesley Hospital’s “East Wing Project” Planning Report describes the location of the proposed new development on the site currently occupied by the hydrotherapy facility.

The statement contained in the planning report that “the proposal to development the East Wing is based on the reduced requirement for the service provided by the hydrotherapy pool in the centre of the site” is a fabrication.

Over 500 people use this vital health facility EVERY week.

The loss of this essential facility will affect patients who use the hydrotherapy facility to assist them in the management of health and well-being, including but not limited to:

- Young children and adults with deformities who are able to exercise and gain some control over their limbs and their muscles;
- Elderly and young patients alike with arthritis who maintain their mobility;
- Wheelchair bound adults and children, paraplegics and quadriplegics who are able to exercise their muscles and maintain a better lifestyle;
- Overweight people who cannot exercise on land;
- Pregnant mothers and mothers-to-be who maintain a healthy antenatal program;
- In-patients who have recently undergone hip, knee or back surgery who are referred to the hydrotherapy centre to assist in their recovery;
- Surgery patients who have recovered from their surgery faster and with greater improvement;
- Outpatients who follow their prescribed exercise program (PEP) provided by their hydro-therapist;
- Cancer patients who maintain an exercise program during their illness


The Wesley’s Mission clearly states:

QUOTE:
The Whole Person - The Wesley Hospital believes that each person is an inseparable unity of body, mind and spirit. We therefore seek to respond to and respect the physical, psychological, social and spiritual dimensions of our patients and co-workers.

Compassion - The Wesley Hospital believes that our highest call is to love one another in the way that Jesus showed that God loves us. The Wesley Hospital also believes that compassion is the highest motive for excellence in what we do. We seek to care for and comfort one another, even when we cannot cure.

Justice - The Wesley Hospital believes that every person, without exception, is of inestimable value because God loves them. The Wesley therefore seeks to promote the kind of justice that recognises and responds to people according to their individual need, and which cares especially about the poor and the weak.
UNQUOTE

The development of the East Wing to provide an additional 74 beds at the cost of the hydrotherapy facility is an injustice to the community who use it regularly, shows a lack of compassion for those who try hard to maintain some level of control over their health and well-being, and demonstrates that the Wesley Hospital (a “not-for-profit” hospital) and the Uniting Church are only interested in serving the “whole” person, providing that person is paying for surgery and a hospital bed, which affords more income to the hospital.

Whilst the hospital management may have “convinced” a few of their staff doctors to change their recovery program for their surgery patients to not include the hydro-pool, many of the experienced doctors are not happy at the loss of the hydrotherapy facility which has been instrumental in the recovery of many thousands of patients to date.

Two other hydro pools in Brisbane have been allowed to close – one at St Andrews War Memorial Hospital and the other at Holy Spirit Brisbane (now Brisbane Private). Many of these patients now use the Wesley Hydro Facility. If the Wesley Hydrotherapy facility is allowed to be bull-dozed, then there will be no other viable option for the over 500 patients who use this vital facility every week.

I personally use the hydro-pool at least 3 times per week, every week, and this allows me to maintain good health and mobility, and also allows me to continue to work, despite my health issues which include kidney failure (I am a dialysis patient) and I also suffer from chronic hip and back pain, and unremitting foot pain due to a condition caused by inflamed tendons. Without access to the hydro-pool, I will not be able to continue my exercise regime and will be in much greater pain with a substantial decrease in my mobility. I doubt that I would be able to continue to work.

The hydrotherapy facility is an important health resource for a very needy group in our community, as it provides the freedom to exercise in water and removes the "weight-bearing" problems of land exercise, not to mention the lack of soreness to the muscles. The Wesley Hydrotherapy Facility is the only facility that provides a deep-water pool (for low-impact deep-water running, etc), as well as a shallow pool (for stretching and using “weights”), which is very important for the various types of exercise. There is no other facility of equal quality available to the Public in a central Brisbane location. Indeed pools such as the one at the Chermside Splash Complex are a disgrace. It is not well maintained and does not include a deep-water pool.

The current hydrotherapy facility at the Wesley also provides easy parking for the disabled and elderly to access the pool.

The loss of this facility without an adequate replacement being immediately available in a central location will have a huge affect both medically and financially on the community it serves and the health system of this State. The majority of those who use the hydrotherapy pool facility will suffer immense setbacks in their standard of health care resulting in many becoming bed-ridden and possibly even hospitalised, and definitely many will need part or full-time nursing.

LACK OF FULL DISCLOSURE BY THE WESLEY HOSPITAL MANAGEMENT TO THE MEDIA AND GENERAL PUBLIC –
Whilst the information is set out in their Planning Report (ra957412_0001.pdf ), in neither the press release issued on Mon 26 Mar 2007, nor during their presentation of their Concept Plan to the public meeting held at the Wesley Auditorium at 7:00pm that same evening, did the Wesley Hospital Management even mention the closure of the hydrotherapy facility. This had to be brought out by questions from the audience once their presentation was completed.

In the case of the media who were provided with the press release, they therefore did not know to question this decision. At the Auditorium that evening, however, as well as local concerned residents, there was a large contingent of hydro pool users present who after calmly sitting through the smoke-screen presentation, questioned this decision with great passion and fervently shared their own particular stories regarding their need for this facility.

The mother of a young man cried as she asked the Wesley Management, “How can I tell him this is being taken away?” Recently, I witnessed this young man who has been coming to the hydro-pool for several months “walk” the length of the shallow pool at the Wesley. What an achievement! He had become a quadriplegic in a traffic accident and the future looked very dim. However, coming to the Wesley Hydro Facility has improved his life greatly and on this day the look on his face and that of his mother’s was far beyond the value of an extra hospital bed or two. How can we possibly allow this vital facility to be taken away?


Submitted by C Wallace 12/04/07.