THE hydrotherapy pool at the site of a former Gwent hospital has closed for good because the cost of repairing it is too high.

Health bosses were faced with a bill of up to £407,000 for making the pool at the Llanfrechfa Grange Hospital site safe for patients to use.

But Aneurin Bevan Health Board has now declared it as unviable, meaning more than 20 years of hydrotherapy pool there has ended.

The pool - converted for hydrotherapy in the late 1980s after originally opening as a swimming pool in 1975 - was the subject of a major refurbishment around 10 years ago, amid patients' concerns.

More recent problems mean it has been closed since January last year, and while a final decision was pending on its future, alternative arrangements have been made for many of those who used it.

Patients - both adult and children - requiring regular hydrotherapy include those with musculo-skeletal problems, learning disabilities, and neurological conditions.

There are also people who, following physiotherapy, have used health board hydrotherapy sessions at Llanfrechfa Grange on a self-management, paying basis, to maintain their mobility and help with pain relief.

The majority of patients have been found alternative hydrotherapy sessions at Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr, Nevill Hall Hospital, and the Serennu Children's Centre at High Cross, Newport, or have taken up land-based alternatives to hydrotherapy.

But there is a small group of adult learning disabled people with complex needs for whom hydrotherapy is an effective part of their treatment, but who have not been able to have it since last January - and more than 40 younger people with similar disabilities who use hydrotherapy at their schools or day centres, but who will need different provision when they transfer to adult services.

The Serennu Centre hydrotherapy pool has been identified as a possible alternative for them, and a decision on its use will be made shortly.