Full reopening on hold for trained staff
Enable Ireland is exploring how a hydrotherapy pool at a local disability service may “best be utilised”, until such time as the necessary clinical staff can be trained to facilitate a full reopening.
Following a number of recruitment campaigns Enable Ireland successfully appointed a pool attendant in March, and once their training is complete, it’s envisaged the hydrotherapy pool at the Hillside Centre on the outskirts of Cavan Town will open and be in use before the end of this month.
Initially it means that Enable Ireland will be in a position to offer open swim sessions for small groups of children attending their Children’s Disability Network Team. However, until a full complement of staff is appointed, use of the pool will be limited to just that.
It is hoped the centre, which works with children with disabilities and complex additional needs, can extend use once there is staffing in place, including hiring to local groups for use outside of hours, for example on the weekends.
The pool facility includes a swimming area, along with dedicated changing rooms and toilets.
The treatment pool had been closed since 2019 due to a lack of funding. Costing in the region of €440,000 to deliver, it was used for only six months but was forced to shut after the lifeguard left, and funding for the facility dried up.
The pool remained closed also during the subsequent COVID-19 pandemic years, 2020-21.
Required remedial repair works to the pool were completed in 2022.
It costs almost €60,000 per year to run the pool, including paying for a full-time lifeguard and other running associated costs but the issues with funding only surfaced after a visit by Disabilities Minister Anne Rabbitte to the facility a year ago.
Enable Ireland is contracted to provide services on behalf of the HSE at the site.
A spokesperson for the HSE informed the Celt this week that Enable Ireland has advised “it will endeavour to open the hydrotherapy pool as quickly as possible”.
The HSE explained that the newly appointed pool attendant is “required to complete shallow water training” and is “currently completing training as part of the management requirements for the operation of the pool”.
Aside from a pool attendant, the HSE says that trained clinical staff are required for the delivery of hydrotherapy, and therefore it is “not possible” to offer the pool for clinical treatments.
“It is envisaged the pool will be open for use by the end of April 2023. Unfortunately, as there are currently no clinical staff trained in the delivery of hydrotherapy in the Enable Ireland service in Cavan, it is not possible to offer the pool for the delivery of a clinical service.”
They add: “In the interim, Enable Ireland is exploring how the pool may best be utilised, for example, operating open swim sessions for small groups of children. Also external groups, who wish to avail of the pool, have approached Enable Ireland and consideration is being given as to how their requests can be accommodated.”