WAGGA hydrotherapy pool campaigner Karenne Connors has taken her fight to save the facility about as high as she can go - to NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner.
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During a private meeting while Ms Skinner was in Wagga on Tuesday, Mrs Connors pleaded her case and handed the minister a petition signed by 1400 people calling for the retention of the facility, used by people in the treatment of various health conditions.
The 21-year-old heated pool in the grounds of Wagga Base Hospital off Docker Street is threatened with closure.
The Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD) in March revealed plans to close the pool, but backed down for the time being in July in the face of community objection.
The health service announced the pool would operate under a new fee structure aimed at significant cost recovery for nine months, followed by a review of usage and operation costs.
Just when Mrs Connors thought the goal posts were in place to decide the future of the pool and she set about finding ways to lower water heating costs, the health district then said the structure of the pool would be assessed - hinting that high maintenance or repair costs could sound the death knell.
Mrs Connors met with Mrs Skinner in the office of member for Wagga Daryl Maguire to urge the minister to intervene.
She came out of the meeting with a pledge by Mrs Skinner to discuss the issue with the MLHD board at a dinner on Tuesday night, but no commitment to go into bat for her cause.
"I don't know, I don't know where it goes from here," Mrs Connors said after the meeting
Mrs Connors put to Mrs Skinner that the community raised $243,000 to build the pool.
"Wagga Base Hospital is only the custodian of the pool; the pool belongs to the people of Wagga," Mrs Connors told the minister.
"The administration of Wagga Base Hospital is not entitled to even consider the closure of the pool.
"The pool must remain open at all costs."
Mrs Connor, whose late mother Marcia Rumble was the driving force behind community fund-raising for the pool in the 1990s, put to Ms Skinner the various options she had explored to reduce the hydrotherapy pool's running costs, including a co-generation system used in a Victorian pool and solar panels.
She said Ms Skinner gave her a fair hearing and was gracious and approachable.
Mrs Connors said she read at the weekend an opinion piece by Ms Skinner in which she said that country hospitals and health facilities were at the very heart of their communities and the love felt for them should not be underestimated.
"I really believe that, and I'm hoping Ms Skinner does, too," Mrs Connors said.
