Campaigners battling to save a hydrotherapy pool which heavily relies on public funding were last night offered a lifeline.
The Nairn pool, which is visited by 500 patients a week from the Highlands and Moray, is run by a trust which may have to cease operating on the eve of its 30th anniversary.
However, a separate charity has now offered a “significant” sum to maintain the pool if its owners cannot address funding issues with the region’s health chiefs.
Around 70 people attended a public meeting last night after NHS Highland announced it was to halt the annual grant for the pool, at Nairn Hospital.
There, United Reformed Church minister Rev Steven Manders, who is also chairman of the local branch of Arthritis Care, said the charity was prepared to offer the trust tens of thousands of pounds as a short-term solution.
He told the audience: “We have a meeting in the next two weeks and we would look very favourably at perhaps doing a collaborative project that would allow services to progress.
“This was a legacy that has to be spent in Nairn for Nairn people and many people in Nairn who suffer from arthritis use the hydrotherapy pool, so this could be a start of something quite interesting.
“There has to be a plan B, and I’d be very happy to ensure that you receive significant funding.”
Speaking afterwards, trust spokesman Clive Murray acknowledged there was a risk of letting NHS Highland “off the hook.”
But he added: “It’s a very generous offer. It may be spread over some years and we still need the lion’s share of funding from NHS Highland as previously because that is part of the business model, even though the model is adjusting every year.”
Last night, the board was criticised for its failure to send anyone to the meeting to answer questions.
A spokesman for NHS Highland blamed “short notice” for not having anyone directly involved in the issue available to attend.
NHS Highland also denied it had failed to consult with staff and clients of the Nairn Hydrotherapy Trust that operates the pool within the grounds of Nairn Hospital.
It said there had been regular discussions with the trust “to try and agree a business-like way forward to protect the work of the pool.”
The health board initially announced it would stop taking patient referrals from July 1 and that it was planning to offer patients therapy elsewhere – without saying where.
The deadline was then withdrawn following a public outcry and three separate petitions which have attracted a total of almost 1,400 signatures in a matter of days.
At the meeting, Local SNP councillor Liz MacDonald condemned the “appalling lack of consultation” by NHS Highland and told the audience that, as part of a policy aimed at treating people close to home, she would seek cross-party support for a motion backing the pool facility and greater rural health funding at September’s meeting of Highland Council.