OPENING OF THE LONG AWAITED SWIMMING POOL IN JANUARY
Director of Rada: "We are finally returning to our roots and can keep the status of a hospital forever!"
As early as next month, the hospital will open the swimming pool complex that the residents of Rovinj have been waiting for for years. More than HRK 60 million was spent on the construction of two swimming pools, which will be used by hospital patients, recreationists, sports clubs and educational institutions. Appointments for international club preparations are already filling up
Source: istra24.hr, Martina Peresa ⒸPHOTO: Manuel Angelini
Rovinj Special Hospital for Orthopedics and Rehabilitation "Martin Horvat" next month, he is opening a swimming pool complex, the construction of which began more than two years ago, on the site of the old pool, which has since been completely removed, and together with conservators, he dictated the dimensions of the newly built pool.
This is one of the city's capital projects for which funding was requested from the Central Office for Sports and the Ministry of Health. But in the end it is HRK 60 million went exclusively from the city budget. At the same time, she was selected as the contractor Ljubljana company "VG5".
Right to build a hospital, investor City of Rovinj
- We must say that he is an investor City of Rovinj, through his trading company Valbruna Sport. It is an amount that currently exceeds HRK 60 million. Our share is the right to build. So, we gave the field, and the money belongs to the city. Therefore, I think this is a nice synergistic story. Namely, it is a question of huge volumes of air and water that must be heated, cooled and filtered, which consumes a large amount of energy.
The challenge of sports pools is the fluctuation of users during the day and the cost of energy that continues when the user is not in the pool. Our patients will use the therapeutic part throughout the day, from 7 am to 8 pm. As we are in the exploitation of a facility whose consumption is more stable, we will help Valbruna Sport precisely with the costs of energy sources, and they will help us with maintenance, says the director of the hospital in Rovinj. Marinko Rade.
Pool complex it consists of a sports and a spa section, i.e. of two swimming pools. The therapeutic part includes hydrotherapy, a space for new physical therapy and separate changing rooms for patients and citizens, which was not the case before.
Sports pool its dimensions are 33 x 25 meters and it contains fresh water. It has its own engine room and filtration system, as well as temperature regulation.
Director Valbruna Sport, Branko Rajko, announces the opening for January. Recreational citizens will be able to stay here for an hour and a half, he says, for the price of HRK 50. Rowing, diving and water polo club trainings will take place at the new pool.
Appointments for club preparations are filling up
- This pool respects all the principles and requirements for holding international competitions in swimming and water polo. In the future, we will be an interesting point for the preparations of national and foreign clubs. We already have inquiries, and the mitigating circumstance is the fact that the hospital has a four-star hotel with 42 beds in its complex. That's actually a busload of people. Besides, here we are right next to the sea. Furthermore, in addition to the existing gym, we will equip another one right next to the new swimming pool, within the hospital. So, there is a lot of potential, Rade is sure.
This pool is the only one in Croatia to have a specific pool movable floor stainless steel. Three swimming lanes will thus be able to reach zero depth, that is, to the very surface of the pool. The depth will be adjusted for the patients who will use it, but no less important is the fact that children from Rovinj and surrounding kindergartens will learn to swim using it. In addition, physical education classes will be organized at the pool so that school-aged children can swim in completely safe conditions even in winter.
- In the therapeutic part of the complex there is a smaller pool with dimensions of 12 x 6.6 meters and variable depths, and sea water will be used in it. The temperature here will be much higher, around 30 degrees. There is also a whole hydrotherapy; with bathtubs, underwater massages and baths, and changing rooms for our patients with special needs, announces Rade.
In addition to the swimming pools, there will also be a new operating room next year
A day hospital will soon be opened here, where mostly one-day surgery will take place. It was invested therefore two and a half million kuna for the new operating room, which should welcome the first patients by June next year.
- We are not only arranging the hall, but all the space around it. An entire operating block; from the preparation of the patient, the recovery room and those for sterilizing the equipment and preparing the doctor. I am especially pleased that with the renovation of the old, imperial hall, we are getting a grand window 20 square meters. This is extremely important for the examination and illumination of the operating field, with all additional artificial and focused lights. In combination with natural light, it is a great guarantee of better results of the procedure, explains Rade.
It reminds how it is in 1996 the last operation was performed in the Rovinj hospital, and despite this, the institution managed to keep the name "hospital for orthopedics and rehabilitation" which assumes a surgical profession.
The wider local community gave their support
- We have surgeons anyway. In fact, we have additionally equipped ourselves, so now surgeons from Rijeka and Lovran are with us. With today we employ four orthopedists. With this, we are finally returning to our roots, and along the way we had the support of the local community, HZZO and the Ministry. Namely, the money came from decentralized funds that the Government gave to the County, and the County allocated to us.
I have to praise my colleagues here, because it is about funds that are subsidized on an annual basis. In order for us to build a hall, they had to give up their "part of the cake". Istrian health centers, county institutes for public health and emergency medicine, and Pula General Hospital. We perceive this as a sign of collegiality and friendship. That's how they enabled us to keep this institution forever as a hospital because for a while it wasn't like that, recalls Rade.
Namely, in 2014, when Rade took over the management of the hospital, it contained only physical medicine and rehabilitation, as well as physical therapy and orthopedics. Today, there are: children's orthopedics, pediatrics, neuropediatrics, children's rehabilitation, neurology, speech therapy, clinical psychology, educational rehabilitation, professional and scientific activity, health tourism activity, anesthesiology, resuscitation and pain medicine.
First the team, then the investment
- A lot of them start from investments, but they forget that something good must be done in that space. We start from the question of what we will do and whether we have a team for it. Then we form and test the teams. If they work well, we ask what they need in order to work even better, and only then do we start investing. Once the investment is finished, the work starts immediately because the team is already fully prepared, Rade is clear.
In addition to the swimming pool and the operating room, in the next year the focus will be on Department of Children's Rehabilitation on the formation of which all Istrian mayors, mayors and prefects managed to agree, and it is a valuable investment HRK 17 and a half million. Free places for children are mostly left during the summer months, so that the smallest patients do not miss too much of the teaching process.
An investment for the well-being of children
We have a 24-hectare park and a beach that local children also use, and with the existence of new swimming pools, children will be able to have therapy in the morning and spend the afternoon playing. Of course, they develop through play and interaction with their peers, and when someone asks them how they were in rehabilitation, I want their first association to be play, not a hospital institution, Rada tells us at the end.
The hospital complex has an area of 24,000 square meters, without a single architectural barrier for people with reduced mobility and people with disabilities. Currently, the institution has 132 employees, and the capacity is 220 beds, although this figure will soon increase for another 24 of them, all in order to enable parents to stay with their hospitalized child.
Patients arrive at the Rovinj hospital from all over Croatia and from Italy, Slovenia and Austria.
In addition to existing health tourism, the opening of the swimming pool complex at the end of next month will mean, in addition to making everyday life easier for the youngest patients, also excellent conditions for the future development of sports tourism.
