Media Release Oct 29 2008

Hydrotherapy Services at Royal North Shore Hospital

What’s New

Read the expert panel report (763K PDF File)

About the hydrotherapy services review

Royal North Shore Hospital (RNSH) is undergoing a multi-million dollar redevelopment which will deliver purpose-built new facilities of outstanding civic quality that will consolidate the Hospital's reputation as one of the nation's leading health care facilities.

The flexible, future-proof design will enable the main hospital building to expand to meet future health care needs. This capacity will be critical to the state's ability to respond to medical and technological advances in health care and to support the health burden of a growing and ageing population.

However, in delivering what will be the largest health capital works project in the state’s history, some disruption to services is unavoidable.

To make way for construction of the new main hospital and community health buildings, the RNSH hydrotherapy pool has closed.

Clinical hydrotherapy inpatients are now receiving hydrotherapy treatment at Moorong pool in the Royal Rehabilitation Centre Sydney; clinical outpatient hydrotherapy is being delivered at the nearby Greenwich Hospital hydrotherapy pool.

These arrangements have now been operating successfully for several months, ensuring no loss of service to patients who have been assessed as requiring hydrotherapy.

All community users of the pool were contacted prior to the closure and informed about alternative venues for water-based activity classes in the Lower North Shore area.

Community concern about the closure of the RNSH hydrotherapy pool prompted Northern Sydney Central Coast Health to review hydrotherapy services on the Royal North Shore Hospital campus.

The decision to exclude hydrotherapy from the RNS Redevelopment was made in 2002 by the previous Northern Sydney Area Health Service Board, made up of clinical and community representatives.

In order for this decision to be clinically tested and to ensure inpatients and outpatients of RNSH were not disadvantaged, the Chief Executive, Mr Matthew Daly, established a panel to provide expert clinical advice regarding effectiveness, safety and cost-effectiveness of hydrotherapy and alternative treatment modalities.

The report of the expert panel, chaired by Dr Peter Kennedy, Deputy CEO of the Clinical Excellence Commission, was submitted in September 2008 and its recommendations have been considered by the Chief Executive.

NSCCH will now request that Health Infrastructure do a feasibility study to advise whether a hydrotherapy pool can be included in the Master Planning for the RNSH campus. In the meantime, discussions will be initiated with private providers and local councils with a view to entering into a public/private partnership in the vicinity of the hospital.

NSCCH commits to consulting closely with both hospital and community users concerning future changes to the service.

Contact us

Should you require any further information regarding the report, please contact:

Ms Sue Shilbury
General Manager
North Shore Ryde Health Service
Tel: 9926 8438
Fax: 9926 7779
Email: sshilbury@nsccahs.health.nsw.gov.au

Authorisation Stamp