The development application for the long-awaited southside hydrotherapy pool, to be built at the Lakeside Leisure Centre in Greenway, is now open for public consultation for two weeks.

“This development application stage is really the last stage of the process before we get to turning the sod and starting construction of this really important facility for Canberra’s south,” ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said.

Hydrotherapy helps people better manage chronic pain caused by illnesses such as cancer, migraine, osteoarthritis and arthritis, or to recover from injury or surgery.

“Hydrotherapy basically keeps people going,” Rebecca Davey, CEO of Arthritis ACT, said. “We have people that go every single day to hydrotherapy pools because there is no other option for their pain relief. It keeps them going; it keeps weight off. Most importantly, it keeps them out of hospital and out of other care situations that cost our governments money.”

Southside Canberra has been without a dedicated hydrotherapy facility for three years. The Canberra Hospital pool at Garran was closed in February 2020; built in the 1960s, it was deemed unsustainable and expensive to maintain. A new hydrotherapy pool for southside Canberra was an election commitment for both ACT Labor and the Canberra Liberals.

The ACT Government committed $8.5 million in the 2022–23 budget to design and construct the facility, and appointed global engineering and architecture firm GHD in April to design the facility. Construction will begin this year, and be completed in 2024.

Based on feedback, the design includes better shower facilities, an accessible gender-inclusive change room, and more seating around the pool.

“When this pool is finished next year, it will add significantly to the opportunity for people, particularly on Canberra’s southside, to access hydrotherapy as a really important service for rehabilitation, but also for ongoing maintenance and support for people who have chronic conditions like arthritis,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.

“These plans are long overdue, but very exciting,” Ms Davey said.

She has urged the ACT Government to build a new hydrotherapy pool for nine years.

It would be good for southside consumers to have a pool that was close to them and that was built for purpose, she said.

“What we’re dealing with at the moment is a group of pools that are swim pools. They’re great for kids who need to swim; they’re not great for older people with chronic conditions.”

Unlike normal pools, hydrotherapy pools “trick the brain” into pain relief, she said.

“In the last few years, we’ve stopped providing opioids to people with chronic pain. That’s really good for them medically, and it reduces falls and the like, but you’ve got to replace that pain relief with some other option. Hydrotherapy is a really simple way of doing it. We know some people who say … an hour in a pool is two days’ worth of pain relief.”

But Canberra needs more hydrotherapy pools, Ms Davey believes. Arthritis ACT runs 64 hydrotherapy sessions across Canberra a week – “And we are absolutely at capacity,” she said. There are between 10 and 20 people in each pool each time, while on the northside, they must restrict people to one session a week.

“It’s not enough; we’ve got to scope this out and make better plans for the future,” Ms Davey said. “But this is the first point.”

Ms Stephen-Smith said the government would work with the community and stakeholders to understand what other public facilities they needed to develop, and where they could, partner with the private sector or support access to private facilities.

The public can comment on the DA for the facility until 22 September.

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