Group looks at hydrotherapy need

2:54am Thu Jul 29, 2010

The father of a son with cerebral palsy is among members of a health advisory group looking at ways to improve access to hydrotherapy in the Newark area.

Mr Adrian Hartley, of Hawton Road, Newark, is involved with a task-and-finish group set up by Nottinghamshire County LINk (local involvement network) to look into hydrotherapy and water-based exercise.

In October, the group is due to make recommendations, to the organisations that deliver or pay for these services, about what should be done to improve access.

Mr Hartley’s son, Dale, 29, has complex needs.

His father said hydrotherapy made a huge difference to Dale, who otherwise spent his time either in bed or in a wheelchair.

“The environment of a hydrotherapy pool gives him freedom and the ability to move,” Mr Hartley said.

Dale was a pupil at Fountaindale Special School, Mansfield, where he was able to use its hydrotherapy pool.

When he left he used the pool at the former Balderton Hospital site for two years until it closed because of problems with maintenance.

Since then Dale’s parents have been trying to continue to give him the benefit of hydrotherapy and joined Vitalise Skylarks in Nottingham which has a heated indoor pool and an overhead tracking hoist.

But Mr Hartley said there had been times when they had been unable to use the pool for various reasons and it was now temporarily closed.

This has meant that for two years they have been unable to find any alternative and, as a result, Dale’s muscle structure has been dramatically reduced.

Mr Hartley said: “Dale has become a lot stiffer and has a much poorer quality of sleep,” he said.

“We as carers have not been able to get any suitable respite during that time and as a result are constantly tired.”

Dale has suffered from abdominal pain for the past 14 months and Mr Hartley said that, even if a lack of hydrotherapy was not the cause of the problems directly, he felt it had left him less able to deal with them.

“The high cost of medication and medical treatment including numerous hospital stays is never factored in when considering providing hydrotherapy. How do you put a value on people’s quality of life?” Mr Hartley said.

He said in an ideal world it would be wonderful to find a replacement for the Balderton pool locally, but said they had to accept that there were financial restraints.

However, he felt a realistic option might be to rent pools at King’s Mill or Portland Training College, Sutton-in-Ashfield.

Mr Hartley said it was important that people who needed hydrotherapy services made their needs known.

The group can be contacted at LINk Team Office, Unit E2 South glade Business Park, Cowlairs, Hucknall Road, Nottingham, or email k.jeffery@carersfederation.co.uk

The LINk network was set up in 2008 by the Department of Health to give communities a voice in health and social care.

Last week the Advertiser reported how rheumatoid arthritis sufferer Kate Murrell, of South Scarle, is continuing her fight for regular hydrotherapy, after being told she could have only six sessions at King’s Mill.

She is due to meet representatives of Sherwood Forest Hospitals Foundation Trust next month to try to find a way forward.

Kate Murrell urged people in the Newark area who felt they would benefit from hydrotherapy to speak out to help highlight demand.