Patients' pain disappears in renovated hydrotherapy pool
By Deborah Cameron
JAKARTA (JP): The hydrotherapy pool at Fatmawati Hospital in South Jakarta is a gleaming example of modern medical treatment methods. Patients who immerse themselves in its specially heated water say that they get immediate relief from pain and much more flexibility in injured and paralyzed limbs.
"One of the patients who is recovering from multiple fractures said that when he gets into the pool he feels the pain disappear into the water," said the head of the Medical Rehabilitation Department, Dr. Gerry Heryati.
The hydrotherapy pool, built in 1973 with help from Australian donors, was recently renovated in a project jointly funded by the Australian Agency for International Development, the Salvation Army and Bethesda Hospital in Melbourne, Australia.
They gave close to Rp 30 million to have the pool redesigned and rebuilt so that is was safer and better for disabled patients. The hydrotherapy building was renovated and painted and new tiles were laid on the floor. At the same time the pool water supply, filtration and chemical systems have been improved.
The pool, housed in a special wing of the hospital's rehabilitation center, is about five metres long and ranges in depth from 70 cm to 1.4 meters. It is heated to a temperature of 32 degrees Celsius. Patients spend about 30 minutes in the pool doing a range of movements and exercises supervised by specially trained staff.
Two physiotherapists from Bethesda Hospital have spent the past two weeks based at Fatmawati Hospital training physiotherapists in up-to-date techniques and also familiarizing patients with the pool.
The Bethesda and Fatmawati Hospitals have a special relationship due to their shared interest in rehabilitation. Bethesda specializes in the area of rehabilitation and its services are internationally renowned.
One of the two visiting Australian physiotherapists, Jane Gutherie, is the manager of Physiotherapy Services at Bethesda Hospital and has specialized in the management, organization and maintenance of hydrotherapy units for many years.
She described the pool at Fatmawati Hospital as "wonderful".
"It is a great asset for physiotherapists and the patients love it," she said
The second physiotherapist, Elizabeth Cotter, said that hydrotherapy accelerated the recovery of stroke patients and those with serious bone injuries and chronic pain. Paraplegic and quadriplegic patients also benefit from the treatment.
The pool will be open every day to both individuals and groups of patients from Fatmawati Hospital, a public hospital which caters to thousands of outpatients every day and has a 565-bed general hospital.
There are an estimated 5.7 million disabled and handicapped people in Indonesia. Many are hurt in traffic accidents while others suffer from crippling contagious diseases including poliomyelitis and leprosy.
Cotter said most of the quadriplegic and paraplegic patients at Fatmawati Hospital are young men who have fallen from tall buildings in construction site accidents.
Of Indonesia's disabled population, only about 15,000 a year receive any kind of rehabilitation treatment. Fatmawati Hospital is one of the few places in Indonesia with a functioning hydrotherapy pool.
Still, Dr. Gerry says, the future is looking brighter for disabled people as rehabilitation specialists and physiotherapists receive more training and better methods become available to them.
She pointed to the opening of Indonesia's first occupational therapy school in Solo, Central Java, last September, as an important sign of future improvement.