Physio Pool trust hopes to secure future with lease
THE trust which runs Dunedin’s Physio Pool hopes to start talks soon with the Southern District Health Board, discussions which the trust hopes will secure the future of the facility.
However, the SDHB says planning processes concerning the new Dunedin Hospital mean any new lease by the Therapeutic Pool Trust for the pool will be some time away yet.
The pool has faced dual threats in recent years: the expense of running it and maintaining its water at 35degC almost led to its closure in 2014, and the land it sits on might have been used for the rebuild of Dunedin Hospital.
Public fundraising helped save the pool four years ago, and as the new hospital is now destined for the two blocks south of the pool’s location, at the corner of Hanover and Castle Sts, the trust now hopes to approach the SDHB to enter in to a longterm lease for the pool, trust secretarytreasurer Neville Martin said.
‘‘Until we get a longterm lease we’re not going to be able to carry out the upgrade,’’ he said.
‘‘The first time around we had to demonstrate that we could raise the money in order to justify getting a lease; this time around we are having to get a lease before we can justify getting the money.’’
In the meantime, increasing maintenance and operational costs, especially for water heat ing, had meant the trust had to raise admission fees.
The trust hoped an upgrade to the facilities would reduce those costs, but it needed to secure the lease first, Mr Martin said.
‘‘We need to know in the coming months about the status of the lease, because we have to commit to certain fundraising or grant application deadlines . . . and the lease is critical to applications for grants.’’
SDHB chief executive Chris Fleming said a settlement to the issue was months away.
‘‘The situation will become clearer once the master site planning is complete for the new Dunedin Hospital,’’ he said.
‘‘The master site planning examines all Southern DHB assets, both existing and future.
‘‘This work feeds into the second part of the detailed business case which is due to be presented to Cabinet around March 2019. Therefore, we don’t anticipate being able to progress this matter for a number of months yet.’’
Mr Martin said public support had kept the physio pool open thus far, and the trust still depended on that support.
‘‘A significant part of the future for the pool lies in the continued [public] support.
‘‘It [the public] also has to support the pool as a financial issue, because at the moment under the current regime costs exceed revenue and the upgrade is designed to assist with reducing costs and therefore making it more viable.’’