"I benefited hugely from the service"

After surgery, my physiotherapist felt I needed additional help to improve my strength and mobility and referred me for hydrotherapy sessions at RAH in Paisley.

I received my appointment reasonably quickly which was surprising.  The hospital is easy for me to get to, although parking is always a nightmare.  The environment was clean, which is very important to me being immune suppressed, and wet surfaces constantly dried, which is important with my mobility issues.  From the very start the staff were very friendly and put me at ease as I suffer anxieties, and were happy to show me the pool area after my first assessment so I knew what to expect when I came back.

Another aspect which helped my anxiety was having radio/music playing in background by pool.  It is one of my coping mechanisms and personally was a huge aid to me, and a distraction when I had to share the pool with other patients.

I absolutely loved the hydrotherapy sessions I had. I benefited hugely from the service, which helped my mobility, balance, flexibility and confidence. I was able to do so much more in the water than I can on land, and benefited from the warm temperature which relaxed my muscles.

I felt the staff were all knowledgeable about my needs and were patient in helping me with my anxieties.  All exercises were demonstrated well, and re explained when required.  Any questions were fully answered when asked.  When I was unable to do any exercise, another was suggested until I was strong enough to try it again.  

Making appointments was seamless, working around other commitments I had, and when I needed to re arrange one there was no fuss and easily done.

The areas I feel which could be improved is having sessions with one main person, as I saw 3 different therapists during my 8 sessions.  Although all were very friendly and put me at ease, I felt continuity of seeing one person would have benefited me, seeing the gradual improvement week on week. 

I saw good improvement, but I feel at the end of the 8 weeks I needed many more sessions to help get me back to where I was before surgery and was extremely distressed when discharged.  I do understand that NHS has limited resources and I am extremely fortunate to be given the opportunity to benefit from the service.  

All the hard work I had done to get to this stage was acknowledged and they believe I have the right temperament to get to where I need to be.  I was given exercises to do on my own in a pool to move forward, but I feel without the expert supervision and the warmth of the specialist pool that I will plateau.