London-Fanshawe NDP MPP Teresa Armstrong met with concerned citizens on Tuesday to discuss the planned closure of the hydrotherapy pool at St. Joseph’s Hospital.

Dozens of people who use the pool for rehabilitation and general health care were on hand at Cherryhill Village Mall to plead with Armstrong to continue to try to keep it open.

Armstrong says “People that are using this pool are confused about why it’s being closed.”

The pool is scheduled to close at the end of August in order to cut about $25,000 from the hospital’s annual budget, though much of that annual cost is recouped through user fees.

But the hospital says it’s not just about the money, it’s about moving people out of institutions and into the community.

For the hundreds of people who credit the pool with helping them recover post-surgery and for keeping them moving, there are big concerns.

For Mary Silveria every step is a journey, and for three years the hydrotherapy pool has been her second home, and the water a drug that’s changed her life.

“I could barely get down the stairs, I needed my canes in the water along with the rail to get down into the water and by the end of the first class I could start to bend my left knee that was injured and it was like, ‘Oh my God, I can move it!’”

Both Silveria and Lorraine Gray believe the same thing will happen to them if the pool closes. Gray says “I’m going to get steadily worse, along with everybody else.”

As for the possibility of other pools taking its place, Gray says “Certainly there are a lot of pools available to us, but non that has what we need.”

What is needed includes very hot salt water, multiple levels, rails, bars and programs geared to their abilities, currently only available at St. Joseph’s.

Armstrong says “They’re telling us that ‘If you take our hydrotherapy pool away, we’re going to be back in the health care system. It’s going to cost more, there’s going to be more of an impact.’ They’re going to be suffering the health effects from not having the right therapy.

Currently many patients are having a difficult time trying to find appropriate, affordable alternative therapies.