This is the latest in the transcripts from recorded interviews I’m publishing as I talk to people who are dealing firsthand with fallout from public sector cuts and the recession around the country. I’m publishing these transcripts between longer articles and testimonies that are appearing at False Economy and elsewhere.

This is a transcript from a discussion with Trina Furre, a member of a patient advisory and support group for people with arthritis in South Devon. Trina has had rheumatoid arthritis since she was 19. In this transcript, she talks about her concerns for the NHS and fears about having to pay for healthcare and also about her support group’s battle to keep a hydrotherapy pool at Torbay hospital open.

On relying on drug therapy:

“I got rheumatoid arthritis when I was 19 – so all the way through, I’ve been under the care of rheumatology departments. I’ve been put on a very expensive new drug (called Humira) which costs about £10,000 a year per patient. It’s been pretty life-changing for me, but you know… one of the things that I’ve done with my support group is put up a forum for people with arthritis and [there are] threads that are talking about the new biological drugs [for treatment of arthritis].

“[Because the forums are worldwide], a lot of people [in other countries] are saying -“Will your insurance company cover the cost of this? Which drugs will they pay for and which drugs won’t they pay for?” There’s a whole tier of stuff that [people outside the UK] have to think about. They have to try and convince their insurance companies that it’s worth funding that particluar drug – whereas here in the UK, if you qualify medically, you get the drug pretty much. There’s a bit of postcode lottery in that it is easier to get in some areas than others – but it is just so different than living in fear that [your] insurance company is going to stop the funding…

“It’s one of the new types of biologic drugs that are now used quite extensively for people with arthritis. The down side of it is that it is a new family of drugs that is very expensive to produce and they are very expensive per patient.

“A lot people don’t know…the thing that really worries a lot of people with chronic illnesses is that if this thing with [needing to buy private health] insurance comes in, there would be no insurance that I could get. Nobody [no insurance company] would touch me with a barge pole. Nobody in their right mind would give me health insurance. It only works if you’re completely healthy and very young. I don’t know what the provisions would be if you’re already ill… Most people don’t have private health insurance and it always used to be frowned upon if you went private. It wasn’t approved of in certain circles, so the whole notion of people having to buy health insurance will be a really hard one to sell.

On the fight to keep the hydrotherapy pool at Torbay hospital

“A friend of mind who has bad arthritis was in hospital for a year, because she had an infection in one of her joints and she was lying down for months and months and couldn’t walk. The only reason that she can walk again now is that when she was recuperating, they took her down to hydrotherapy every day. Over the years, she has been raising money for the hydrotherapy department by selling books and stuff like that and she so she keeps close contact with people who work there. She started to get wind of a [plan]…

“There was a questionnaire going round to the patients who were using hydrotherapy. It asked [questions like] – how far would you be prepared to travel for hydrotherapy services? Then she heard via some people who worked at the hospital that the fracture clinic, which is a very busy clinic, wanted to expand and that they had their eye on the place that the hydrotherapy pool is in. She caused a bit of a stink about that and got in touch with the radio and wrote a few letters and they came back and said No, no – they had no plans to stop offering hydrotherapy services.. so all this kind of went round and round with some people saying No, it’s not closing and other people saying – we’ve been told our jobs are not going to be renewed…

Public pools are no replacement

“[Then] they pinned up on the noticeboard [at the hydrotherapy pool] a list of public pools that [people could use] and one of the things that this member of our group did was go around to all of the [public] pools that had been recommended. She wrote a report about how it was absolutely impossible for disabled people to make use of these pools… there were steps going down into [some of the] pools, there were no handrails, there were no hoists to get people into the pools, the water was too cold, the changing rooms were totally unsuitable – it’s just absolute nonsense to say that people with disabilities can use these public pools….

“The hydrotherapy pool is fantastic. You’ve got really warm water and it gives you the freedom to move about. One of the things about arthritis is that if you’re having a flareup, you kind of sit rigidly and everything’s in pain. Moving is painful. To get in a warm supported environment where you can relax and move around is a pain relief in itself. A lot of the pain [from arthritis] comes from a stiffness and not moving freely, so it does seem very bizarre there is this [line where people say] Oh, there’s no call for hydrotherapy anymore. That’s not the story that comes across in the support group. A lot of people say “I would go every day if I could,” because it is such a great thing.

“Originally the pool was built by a charity which was set up originally to raise money for the pool. That was called TAP –  the Torbay Arthritis Project. They raised the money in the 1970s to build the pool and they hadn’t been informed that it was going to be closing, or relocating – but the bottom line is that it looks like there has been somebody in the accounts department or wherever saying – oh, we need to save a bit of money. I know – let’s close the hydrotherapy pool.

“They are saying that as the drugs are improving for arthritis going forward – from the [expert] point of view, there won’t be so much need for hydrotherapy and I just kind of got the idea that hydroptherapy has gone out of fashion.

“I don’t believe that it is becoming an obsolete therapy. In some ways, there is absolutely nothing that you can replace it with.

“For people who have had a car crash or something like that, who have been off their feet for a long time and need to build up the muscles in their legs, often the best way and the quickest way to rehabilitate people is to do it in the water, because you’re supported in the water. The exercises build up your muscles. You can’t do that on land and you can’t do that with drugs.”