'If we raise all the money, will you fix this?': Charge continues to reopen STEGH therapy pool

Former mayor of Central Elgin Sally Martyn has one simple question for the CEO of the St. Thomas-Elgin General Hospital (STEGH) when it comes to the shuttered therapy pool; “If we raise all the money, will you fix this?”

Martyn was regular user of the pool but has seen her health decline drastically over the past few months since its closure.

“I wasn't using a walker in July, but I am now using walker all the time,” said Martyn, who is struggling to move and can’t stand for long periods of time.

“I can't strengthen my legs. When [I’m] in the pool at waist deep water, I can do jumping jacks - I can do everything, and it keeps my legs strong, but I can't do that on land.”

Martyn is leading a committee hoping to convince STEGH to reopen the pool.

Hundreds of monthly pool users have been without therapy since July 10, 2024, after a leak caused severe flooding.

The therapy pool at the STEGH remains empty after a leak caused severe flooding to hospital infrastructure on July 10, 2024 (Brent Lale/CTV News London)

CTV reached out to STEGH CEO Karen Davies in hopes of getting an answer to Martyn’s question but was told Davies was away on Tuesday.

STEGH directed CTV to its latest website statement which included “reopening the pool is not a viable option.”

The statement explained, “The catastrophic failure that occurred in July resulted in severe flooding of the mechanical and high-voltage electrical rooms located directly beneath the pool… The risk of another failure cannot be ignored... A repeat incident could shut down the entire South Building, disrupting care for hundreds of patients and jeopardizing critical hospital operations.”

STEGH says it can’t risk a future leak in the therapy pool which could “shut down the entire South building disrupting care for hundreds of patients and jeopardizing critical hospital operations”. (Brent Lale/CTV News London)

At the Oct. 7 meeting of St. Thomas City Council, council voted unanimously to support residents hoping to reopen the pool.

“They aren’t looking for a financial commitment, but looking for our support,” said councillor Steve Peters when addressing a motion.

“We need this because we're not going to be building a new pool in one year or three years. One of the things I would like to see, perhaps in the correspondence is that the hospital reaches out to the community and talk to Sally and her team of people because, I was under the impression that they were prepared to make the commitment to raise the $350,000 or whatever it's going to take - to be needed.”

Councillor Gary Clarke said that his colleagues see this pool as an important asset.

“People really want the pool and they realize that it has to be fixed,” said Clarke. “They also realize the hospital can't be compromised in terms of electrical and mechanical. So maybe that's going to be more dollars needed to be raised than just the pool itself. Maybe they have to come up with some other safety measures which would take more money. Hopefully people can talk and find out what is the real cost of opening, and can it happen?”

Martyn said that this pool is “so vital to so many of us.”

“A lot of us are going to suffer greatly,” said Martyn.

“There are a lot of us that are suffering now because it's been closed since July. After our initial meeting - which had 60 people attend - I thought that Karen would meet with me. I had been on the (STEGH) board until June, and I thought we had it all arranged, but, at the last minute she just said, ‘it's not about money, so we're not going to meet’.”

Martyn and her committee will be meeting again Wednesday night to figure out their next steps.

They’ve offered to fundraise for the repairs and believe they could easily raise the hundreds of thousands of dollars needed. However, at this point, it doesn’t seem like the hospital is open to the idea.