Healthwatch Brent calls on Trust to reconsider Northwick Park Hydrotherapy Pool closure

 From Healthwatch Brent

 

The hydrotherapy pool at Northwick Park Hospital, which has been serving people across London for over 40 years, is expected to close at the end of August. 

 

A statement from London North West University Hospital NHS Trust (LWNH) said the new NHS plan makes “a clear distinction” between facilities that should be provided in acute hospitals with those “best provided by community services”. 

 

Hydrotherapy, also known as aquatic therapy, is a form of physiotherapy. It combines massage jets and warm water to help alleviate pain and improve overall motion and muscle strength. Currently the pool supports both NHS and non-NHS patients with musco-skeletal problems such as arthritis, and those recovering from orthopedic surgery. 

 

Thousands of people have backed a petition by Mark Adshead, urging for the hydrotherapy pool at Northwick Park Hospital to remain open. Mark has described the pool as a much-needed lifeline for the community and expects there to be severe consequences for the physical and mental health of patients. 

 

“While we understand that the pool is a popular resource for a small number of patients, it is mostly used by private users. Hydrotherapy is not usually provided in acute hospitals, and the new NHS 10-year plan makes a clear distinction between services that should be provided in acute hospitals and those best provided by community services.   

 

“Our hospital resources must therefore be focused on faster diagnosis, expanding surgical and outpatient services, and providing effective ward care so patients can be discharged promptly and treated equitably.” 

 

Spokesperson for the LNWH trust

 

“This is the only relief I get from painful joints and isn’t available anywhere else in the area.” 

 

Hydrotherapy pool user

 

We urge the LNWH trust to reconsider this decision.

 

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We'll update this section to inform you of the next steps of Healthwatch Brent.

 

Barry Gardiner calls for Hydrotherapy Pool closure to be paused, release of documentation regarding the decision and review of decision in consultation with service users

 

A patient and physiotherapist in an Australian hydrotherapy pool

 

Barry Gardiner MP for Brent West is due to meet Pippa Nightingale, CEO of London North West University Healthcare Trust after her decision to close the Northwick Park Hydrotherapy Pool has resulted in a collective complaint by staff and uproar among patients.

 

In her response to a letter from Barry Gardiner the CEO merely repeated what was in the Trust's reluctantly issued press release.

 

This is the exchange:

 

Dear Ms Nightingale,

I hope this letter finds you well. 

 

I write on behalf of multiple constituents who have contacted me in relation to the impending closure of the hydrotherapy pool at Northwick Park Hospital. I understand this is due to happen at the end of this month, so I would be grateful if you could please treat this issue as a matter of urgency. 

 

I understand that service users were not consulted on the decision to close the pool, nor were they formally notified of the closure in good time. I understand that instead, patients were abruptly informed by reception staff that they could not book any sessions beyond the end of this month. 

 

I understand that the hydrotherapy service provides life-changing treatment to many service users who suffer various limiting and painful conditions. I am told by my constituents of its immeasurable benefits, including one constituent who depends on local access to hydrotherapy to maintain her employment, and in turn her independence and mental wellbeing. 

 

I understand that patients already self-fund their sessions at the pool and they therefore feel that costs currently incurred by the Trust are minimal. I share their concerns that on the other hand, closing the pool will cause deterioration in the patients’ conditions and decrease their independence, resulting in far greater costs for the NHS and social care in the long term. 

 

I am sure you have not come to this decision lightly. However, I would be grateful if you could please: 

 

1.Urgently pause the decision to close the hydrotherapy pool;
2. Release documentation in relation to how the Trust came to this decision;

3. Review the decision in consultation with service users.

 

If there is no way the closure can be avoided, I would be grateful if this could at least be delayed and for the Trust to assist with referring patients to suitable alternatives. 

 

Thank you for your attention to this matter. I look forward to your response. 

 

Yours sincerely,

Barry Gardiner

 

Dear Barry, 

 

Thank you for your letter of 22 July regarding concerns about the closure of the hydrotherapy pool at Northwick Park Hospital. 

 

I can confirm that the hydrotherapy pool will close on 30 August this year. This is one month later than originally planned to allow more time for engagement with service users, and I hope that this provides you with some additional reassurance around the work we are doing in this area, as you ask in your letter. 

 

We are engaging with our Patient and Carer Participation Group about the pool closure and will take into consideration any concerns that are raised through that forum. While this discussion will not impact upon the decision, it may affect the way in which we manage or communicate the change. 

 

As part of communicating with the pool’s users, we are providing information about all alternative local providers of hydrotherapy. This includes the nearby Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital which has a much larger facility with accessible steps and a hoist. We are therefore assured that all those who use the service will have suitable alternative options.

 

As you note, closing the pool is not a decision we have taken lightly. I would like to reassure you that the decision follows completion of a full quality and equality impact assessment. 

 

We fully recognise that the pool is a popular resource, especially among fee-paying users, who make up most of its users. However, hydrotherapy is not usually provided in acute hospitals, and the new NHS 10-year plan makes a clear distinction between services that should be provided in acute hospitals and those best provided by community services. 

 

You will also be aware of the changes to the NHS financial regime this year, including the funding cap on elective activity. It is now therefore essential to focus all our resources on providing care to acutely unwell patients, and not the funding of community services. This means concentrating efforts on faster diagnosis, expanding surgical and outpatient services, and providing effective ward care so patients can be discharged promptly and treated equitably. 

 

Despite fee-paying users, upkeep and maintenance means the pool has operated at a financial loss to the Trust. If we continued providing this community service, it would reduce the number of appointments we can provide for our acutely unwell patients, resulting in longer waits for essential care. 

 

I appreciate there are aspects around the balance between acute care and community services that you may wish to discuss further. If so, I would be very pleased to arrange a meeting. 

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Pippa Nightingale

Chiel Executive

 

Philip Grant: Northwick Park Hydrotherapy Pool – what the NHS Trust Chief Executive wrote (and my reply, seeking to help resolve her problem)

Guest Post by Philip Grant in a personal capacity

From the NHS Trust’s complaints leaflet.

 

There have been several articles on “Wembley Matters” recently, and a lot of interest, about the London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust’s decision to close the hydrotherapy pool at Northwick Park Hospital. One recent article shared the reply I had received from Brent Council Leader, Cllr. Muhammed Butt, to an email I had sent to him and the Council’s Chief Executive.

 

That was not the only email I had sent about this matter, and in a “FOR INFORMATION” comment under the blog which reported a statement by the NHS Trust about the closure decision (given to Local Democracy Reporter, Grant Williams), I shared the text of an email I had sent on 28 July to the Trust’s Chairman and its Chief Executive Officer. I made the case that ‘that this facility IS needed locally, and should not simply be withdrawn through a one-sided cost-cutting decision of the NHS Trust.'

 

This guest post will let you know “what happened next”, and update interested readers on the latest position over the closure, as far as I know it.

 

On 30 July, I received an email from the Patient Relations Office at Northwick Park Hospital, with three attachments. The first was a letter from a Complaints Officer, telling me that my email of 28 July was being treated as a complaint, which was being investigated, and that: 

 

‘We aim to complete our investigation by 23 September 2025, and to respond to you shortly after this date.’

 

The second attachment was their complaints leaflet (see above). The covering email also said: ‘Further correspondence will have to be encrypted in line with the Trust’s Information Governance protocols and we have attached a guide created by NHSMail to instruct you on how this is done.’ The attached guide was a fourteen-page pdf document!

 

The front page heading from the Encrypted Emails Guide.

 

The first email may have been the result of the NHS Trust Chairman, Matthew Swindells, kicking his copy of my email into the long grass. I was about to reply to it, saying that my “complaint” (if they wanted to treat it as that for statistical purposes) required a reply from someone at the top of the NHS Trust, long before 23 September (as the plan is to close the hydrotherapy pool on 30 August), but I received a second email. This was again from the Trust’s “Complaints” address, but it included a “link” which I had to follow, in order to download an encrypted letter!

 

The letter, thanking me for my email of 28 July, was signed by Ms Pippa Nightingale MBE, the Trust’s Chief Executive. I can see no reason why its contents need to be treated as confidential, so I will ask Martin to attach a copy of it at the end of this article.

 

While her letter includes some words that recognise the hydrotherapy pool’s importance – ‘I do appreciate how beneficial this pool has been …’, ‘I fully recognise that the pool is a popular resource …’ – the key paragraph is this:

 

‘… we are actively engaging with service users, patient and carer groups and local MPs about the closure and will take into consideration any concerns raised. While this will not impact upon the decision, it may affect the way in which we manage or communicate the change.’

 

In other words, the NHS Trust still plans to close the pool on 30 August. Frankly, that is not an acceptable solution. The hydrotherapy pool is a long-established facility on the Northwick Park Hospital site, and while the new NHS ten-year plan may indicate that the buildings there should in future concentrate on being an “acute” hospital, that is no reason why this important piece of local health care infrastructure (fully refurbished only five years ago) should not be allowed to continue where it is, even if that is under different management.

 

The NHS Trust’s values, as proclaimed in its logo!

 

This is the text of the email I sent on 4 August, in reply to Miss Nightingale’s letter:

 

Your ref: pn/ph/25/7/C12257 - how you can resolve the issue of the Hydrotherapy Pool

 

Dear Ms Nightingale (and Mr Swindells),

 

Thank you for your letter of 1 August, in reply to my email to you both of 28 July 2025.

 

I note that much of your letter is a repeat of the press statement which the Trust made recently about its decision to close the Hydrotherapy Pool at Northwick Park Hospital. You then go on to say that you are actively engaging with a variety of stakeholders, but that 'this will not impact on the decision.'

 

That last statement strongly suggests that you have not grasped the seriousness of the position which the closure decision, and the way it has been handled, has put your NHS Trust in. As things stand, you and Mr Swindells are in danger of bringing the London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust into disrepute.

 

This is the latest position on the mess this decision has got the Trust into, as I understand it:

 

·      It has upset and angered both staff and patients who use the hydrotherapy pool;

·      A petition calling on the Trust to stop the closure of the pool now has 2,600 signatures;

·      Brent Council (and possibly other local Councils whose residents use the pool) have raised serious concerns about the decision, including that they should have been consulted and given the opportunity to scrutinise the decision before any closure can go ahead;

·      I understand that at least one of the local Members of Parliament has taken up the matter at senior levels within the NHS;

·      I also understand that hospital staff have raised a collective formal grievance against the Trust management over the closure of the pool.

 

If you will listen to the advice of a retired Civil Servant, who for years had responsibility for resolving complaints, this is what I would suggest you and the Trust should now do:

 

1.    Acknowledge to yourselves that the decision has been badly handled;

2.    Acknowledge this publicly, and apologise for it;

3.    Put the closure of the pool "on hold", and announce an extension, of at least three or four months, to the proposed closure date;

4.    Actively work with other local healthcare bodies, including those running community healthcare, to find a solution for the future running and finance of the hydrotherapy pool, so that the existing pool facility at Northwick Park Hospital can continue to be used by people from the area it already serves. without a break in that service.

 

Thank you for reading this email. I hope you will give my advice serious consideration, so that the future of the hydrotherapy pool can be resolved on a reasonable and sensible basis, for the benefit of the health and wellbeing of the local community. 

Best wishes,

Philip Grant.

 

I don’t know whether my words will have any effect on the pool’s future, but if you feel strongly about something, I believe it is worth trying to influence a positive outcome!

 

I had copied my email of 28 July to two local MPs. Bob Blackman’s office has asked for my address, so that he can write to me, but I have not received his response yet. Barry Gardiner’s office sent me an email on 4 August, saying that he could not reply to me as I am no longer his constituent (he was my MP from 1997 to 2024, and although I still live at the same address in Brent, boundary changes mean that I now come under Harrow East!). The email did, however, provide this piece of news:

 

‘Rest assured, several of Mr Gardiner’s constituents have already contacted him about this issue, and Mr Gardiner has arranged a meeting with Pippa Nightingale later this week to discuss this in more detail.’

 

So, although Barry Gardiner can’t write to me, I have sent his office copies of Ms Nightingale’s letter and my reply to it, in the hope that this could provide a framework for his discussion with the Trust’s Chief Executive. Let’s hope for the best!

Philip Grant.

 

Hydrotherapy Pool staff were told not to speak to patients about closure plans collective grievance reveals - HEART principles contradicted

 

 The Trust's HEART principles explained

 

Staff at Northwest London University Hospitals Trust have lodged a collective formal grievance against the management over the closure of the Hydrotherapy Pool at Northwick Park Hospital. The grievance claims that the Trust did not follow its own HEART principles (Honesty, Equity, Accountability, Respect and Teamwork).

 

They believe the Trust failed to be truthful and open having instructed staff to not tell patients about the closure contrary to the Duty of Candour. That failure to properly inform patients and stakeholders worsened the situation when patients asked for information and had to be refused even when there was highly visible campaigning about the closure and an online petition.

 

 The Trust's determination to close the facility regardless was revealed in a letter to Barry Gardiner MP from Pippa Nightingale the Trust CEO. Confirming the closure, a month later than planned, on August 30th she wrote (my emphasis):

 

 We are engaging with our Patient and Carer Participation Group about the pool closure and will take into consideration any concerns that are raised through that forum. While this discussion will not impact upon the decision, it may affect the way in which we manage or communicate the change.

 

Part of that communication is to inform patients about other local hydrotherapy providers including the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital. Nightingale claims this is a larger facility with accessible steps and a hoist.

 

Staff respond:

 

RNOH does have a hydrotherapy pool, but it does not provide instructor led classes for self-funders, the capacity required to take any further patients and lacks the required transport network for patients. It is not in a position to provide similar services to those provided at NPH. The statement that the Trust may develop partnerships with public/private pools is vague and ignores the established fact that these pools are not at the required temperature for patients with disabilities.

 

Current charges for self-funded classes are double the price at RNOH compared to Northwick Park. The department recognizes the higher than average poverty levels in Brent and the large number of patients on low incomes in Harrow and have consistently reviewed their pricing strategy in order to keep it financially sustainable for the Trust whilst still affordable for the communities it serves. 

 

Our own discussions with RNOH indicate they are not in a position to increase their capacity to take on more patients and are not able to offer classes on the scale that NPH currently does.

 

The grievance notes:

 

Local authorities have the right to scrutinise NHS service changes. If a local authority deems a proposed change to be substantial, it can require a formal consultation.

 

The leader of Brent Council has expressed concern about the closure and the fact that the Council were not made aware, nor patients consulted.  We are unaware of any opportunities that the local councils, GPs or patient groups have had to review and scrutinise the proposals to close the pool.

 

The grievance challenges key aspects of the Trust's case on finance as well as the Equality Impact Assessment and Health Inequalities Assessment:

 

The QEIA labels gender and religion impacts as “neutral”, despite the closure disproportionately affects women, including the only women-only hydrotherapy sessions in the area—essential for cultural and religious inclusivity. This overlooks clear equity implications and may not be compliant with the Equality Act 2010.

 

The grievance document concludes:

 

Conclusions

As already demonstrated above, the Trust’s actions to date have repeatedly shown little or no adherence to the Trust’s own values of Honesty, Equity, Accountability, Respect and Teamwork.

Of particular importance is the lack of honesty in communicating with the public, the unequitable treatment of patients with disabilities for whom hydrotherapy may represent their only safe and effective form of exercise, the lack of accountability of the executive team when invited to discuss the proposed changes, the lack of respect demonstrated to patients, staff and local communities and a complete lack of teamwork in regard to finding a workable resolution.

Whilst we understand the difficult financial position that the Trust is in and appreciate that difficult decisions must be made, we believe there is no apparent immediate or longer-term financial gain from this action. Even if there were any financial gains these should not, in keeping with the ethos of the Francis Report, be placed at greater importance than the long-term health of our patients.

We recognise that the Trust needs to increase activity in key areas like cardiology but there is no evidence that closing the hydrotherapy pool will improve activity in these areas. Contrary, evidence would suggest that closing a major provider of exercise opportunities to those at higher risk of cardiovascular disease (such as older patients and those with rheumatological conditions) would increase the overall strain on those services.

The Government’s 10-year plan emphasizes the importance of physical activity and seeks to integrate it into the lives of individuals, particularly in areas with high levels of health inequality. The self-funded classes delivered in hydro offer a perfect example of what this means in practice delivering high quality care to the community to assist patients with chronic conditions manage their health independently.

Although we accept that within that 10-year period it may be preferable for similar services to be offered in the community, such services do not currently exist and to withdraw the services currently offered without mitigating against this appears to be a breach to the Trust’s duty of care to its communities.

In summary, we are seeking:

That the hydrotherapy service is maintained as is, until an evidence-based review is undertaken, with financial transparency and relevant clinical input. This will involve physiotherapy team managers, consultants, and patient representatives, and if needed should be able to investigate alternative models to keep the service open - while not compromising the essential reform needing to be undertaken elsewhere in the trust.

That the Trust recognises that it has acted in a way that contradicts Trust values, damages trust from staff and patients, and demanded that staff act in a way that we perceive as in conflict with the HCPC standards that we are required to abide by. We want to see a commitment to do better – and an apology to affected patients.

 

LINK TO THE PETITION AGAINST CLOSURE