Construction of a new $4 million indoor hydrotherapy pool at the Orange Aboriginal Medical Service (OAMS) in the Gateway Estate is set to begin after plans for the community facility were given the final tick of approval.

The new facility will be built at the OAMS precinct in Cameron Place, adjoining the existing Walu-Win Centre. Along with a 10x12m program pool and gym, the building will include consulting rooms, storerooms, a plant room, and amenities.

OAMS received funding for the facility from the Department of Health and Aged Care, along with support from Newmont Cadia.

“Our hydrotherapy pool is an extension of our existing Walu-Win health services,” OAMS Board Chair Alisha Aglund said at the official groundbreaking ceremony last week.

“So I'm very excited to see this commencing. It's been a long haul and we've been very committed in the last four years to getting this design exactly right.

“But I guess the most exciting point for me is that it is extending our preventative health,” she continued. “Often for our people and certain parts of our community they're priced out of such services. So, to now be able to have autonomy and choice over their health journey and wellness journey – this is a first for our community, but also for the way that we look at healthcare.

“Whilst it is just a pool, it’s going to be so much more than that, and we're so excited to bring this to life for our community to call their own!”

The Orange Aboriginal Medical Service began 20 years ago this year in May 2004 and first opened its clinic to patients the following year. From a small building in Palmer Street and seven staff, the organisation now operates five facilities and employs more than 140 people.

OAMS CEO/Managing Director Jamie Newman was part of the initial committee formed in 1998 to set up a local Aboriginal Medical Service. He said he is proud of what the organisation has been able to achieve in this time delivering a growing range of free primary and allied health services for people in Orange.

“We've grown significantly over 20 years,” Mr Newman said. “If we want to be saying that we want better health outcomes, then you have to be innovative in what you deliver. You just can't have a doctor and a nurse and that's it. It's got to be more than that. It's got to be a speech pathologist. It has got to be audiologists. It's got to be exercise physiologists, physiotherapists, mental health clinicians… So we have a range of services here that cater to the needs of the community.

“People need to have access to health care, and if it's accessible, then people are going to come. That's how we get health outcomes.”

The new hydrotherapy pool, Mr Newman said, is part of their vision for the future of the service, one that caters for people from “Birthing to Dreaming” with a focus on preventive health, not only treating illness.

“Hence why hydrotherapy is crucial for us, for our frail aged, people with disabilities, people recovering from injuries, whether it's sport related or just injuries in the home. Or even doing intervention/prevention programs like pregnant women doing aqua therapy classes before they have babies,” Mr Newmans said.

“Our vision of Birthing to Dreaming is we need to be connecting with our babies so that we put them on a pathway of being well, not reacting to illness and disease… We've got to be working with our young mums. We’ve got to be working with parents, working with families to ensure that our babies come to this world well and maintain wellness throughout that cycle of life.”