Hydrotherapy pool at PEH cost HSSD £195k
A STATE-OF-THE-ART hydrotherapy pool at the hospital cost almost £200,000 to build, Health and Social Services has revealed.
The facility, which has been lying idle for a year, has now been permanently closed – just four years after opening.
And after initially failing to provide the exact costings of the pool, the department has now confirmed that around £195,000 was spent on it.
It said earlier this week that the facility, which was built as part of the new clinical block, was closed temporarily in 2012 as HSSD introduced cost-saving measures in an attempt to reduce its predicted overspend for that year.
Up until October 2013, the pool was maintained but at a lower temperature.
It was then that the department decided to close it for good due to changes in practices and therefore less demand.
'The closure of the hydrotherapy pool was not an easy decision but in the circumstances we were satisfied that the levels of care, standards of service and quality of outcomes for patients would not be compromised as a result of this decision,' said HSSD deputy minister Martin Storey.
