The problems with the Albury Wodonga Health (AWH) hydrotherapy pool would have been known by management long before its closure. 

The AWH CEO Leigh McJames says that it will cost $50-100,000 to make the necessary upgrades but there are “competing priorities. Our priority of service delivery is at the sharp or acute end. It is the emergency department and saving lives.” 

Service delivery should apply to all levels of need. The hydrotherapy pool was being used 1200 times per month at a cost of $6 per visit. At $7200 per month it would only take 14 months to cover the maximum upgrade costs of $100,000. 

Have Mayor Mack and our local members sat down as a group and discussed how to encourage AWH to make this a priority? 

What does the NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard have to say? Let’s look at solutions not problems so that those who get great benefit from the pool do not have to wait two or three years before a new pool is built. 

Do the Albury and Wodonga councils realise that if this area had an indoor aquatic centre there would be no need for the present unsatisfactory rehabilitation facilities which obviously are not feasible or workable. 

Hydro/rehabilitation pools are always part of new age indoor aquatic centres both in other regional cities and overseas.

They include specific resistance pools and rehab facilities with trained professionals to supervise and maintain hygiene etc.

In fact most centres I have seen lately incorporate physiotherapy/exercise physiologist consulting rooms in the complex.

With an ageing population this should be a priority. Perhaps both councils could re-visit the need for an indoor aquatic/recreation centre again?

RELATED:

It was disappointing to hear Malcolm Turnbull blame the current drought and the consequences on global warming.

Australia has suffered through droughts, floods and bushfires even before this country was inhabited. What we need to hear from our politicians are measures how to minimise the affects of these natural disasters. By following the global warming hype all that has been achieved is power prices increase dramatically and reliability of supply reduced.

Along with aluminium smelters and paper mills being closed and shifted to overseas countries which do not have the same high standards in the environment plus occupation health and safety regulation that exist in Australia.

Why not challenge politicians to put all overhead power lines underground in high bushfire areas in the next seven years.

Have tax incentives and assistance for permanent Australia citizens to move agricultural production to areas with good reliable water supply. Also change immigration rules to make it five years before you can become a permanent resident if you live and work in a regional area otherwise it will be seven years.