Exclusive: Start date set for UHW weekend cardiac care

After more than eight years, a significant milestone in the campaign for 24/7 cardiac care at University Hospital Waterford has been achieved.

Waterford News & Star can exclusively reveal that UHW has decided upon the commencement period for the crucial service at the end of Q1 or start of Q2.

The hospital received approval to begin recruitment to enable the operation of the emergency cardiac service from 8am to 8pm on a 7-day basis in September of last year but faced recruitment challenges.

Waterford News & Star reported in November, that the recruitment was stalled due to a number of the 18 posts needed to resource the weekend service required a derogation from the HSE due to the roles being filled by internal candidates.

The positions those candidates would be vacating had to be backfilled before the staff could take up the new positions. The approval was granted on October 16, 2024, and the recruitment process was completed in mid-January.

A commencement date for the 7-day service in the week was set to be announced ending January 26, but the meeting was postponed due to disruption to the health services in the south east due to Storm Eowyn.

Following the delays, the decision was made on a provisional starting date during a meeting on February 7.

In a statement to this newspaper, a spokesperson for the HSE said: “University Hospital Waterford has made a provisional date towards [the end of] the first quarter of this year or early in the second quarter.”

As with the delay to the commencement of the service since the recruitment phase ended which was caused by differences in start dates from the recently recruited members of the team, the provisional date is “contingent on the agreement of contracts with physiologists which is currently under discussion with Human Resources and the Unions”.

The eventual start date for the crucial service could be as much as six months after the date that Waterford TD and Government Chief Whip, Mary Butler said was her “expectation”, previously.

Then a Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Butler said the start date was expected by the start of November.

"Our expectation was that we would see weekend coverage in place by the start of next month, but I am hesitant to give out timelines,” Minister Butler said in a Dáil debate in October. “Sometimes issues can arise which are no one’s fault, they are just issues which can occur as part of any recruitment process.”

Emergency cardiac care at University Hospital Waterford is currently limited in operation to weekdays, excluding bank holidays.

UHW has two catheterisation laboratories which operate from 8am to 8pm and 8am to 6pm, respectively.

At present, as the catheterisation laboratories at UHW shut on a Friday evening, anyone across the Déise who suffers a heart attack has to be rushed to Cork or Dublin for emergency treatment. These catheterization labs are kitted out to provide a specialist treatment called primary percutaneous coronary intervention.

Cardiology doctors, such as Dr Paddy Owens at UHW, have raised the vital timeliness of such treatment, within 120 minutes following a cardiac event in order to avoid long-term health impacts.

This lack of availability prompted Sinn Féin TD for Waterford Conor McGuinness to say: “The attitude of the government is clear, if you are going to have a heart attack in Waterford or the wider south east, you had better schedule it between the hours of 8 am to 8 pm."

The newly-elected TD criticised the government’s inaction on the issue: “The promise of 24-7 cardiac care at University Hospital Waterford has gone unfulfilled over the last two Governments, despite the glaring need for such a service and the huge campaign that has galvanised opinion across the south east."

“As things stand, emergency cardiac care is not available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This level of service has been available in other regions as a given for many years," he said.

Minister of State Mary Butler said that the commencement of 8-to-8 cardiac care, seven days a week, would amount to “90-95% coverage of all cases. From there, it will take another final push at the Department of Health to reach the magic number of 100%.”

Minister Butler claimed that her work during the last term in the Dáil is to credit for the step forward in cardiac coverage: "The progress made in recent years has taken a lot of time, patience, and persistence from stakeholders on all sides.

"I have no doubt my dogged determination as a Minister in the Department during the last Dáil term resulted in the major strides we’ve seen, such as a new state-of-the-art cath lab and the extension of hours to 8am-8pm, seven days a week.”

If you or a loved one has been impacted by limited availability of Cardiac Care at UHW reach out at hugh.dooley@waterford-news.com.