Start date for weekend cardiac care in Waterford now overdue
Minister of State Mary Butler pictured with Mayor of Waterford Cllr Jason Murphy at the Waterford count centre at SETU.
University Hospital Waterford has completed the recruitment stage for weekend cardiac coverage but was due to announce a commencement date for the 7-day service last week, Waterford News & Star can exclusively report.
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.
University Hospital Waterford received approval to begin recruitment to enable the operation of the emergency cardiac service 7 days per week from 8am to 8pm in September last year but faced recruitment challenges. The last update from the service was in November, saying that recruitment was "underway.”
However, in a statement to Waterford News & Star, a spokesperson for the Health Service Executive revealed that UHW has just completed the recruitment for the weekend service: "University Hospital Waterford has completed their recruitment in the last 7 days with a commencement date for the 7-day service to be agreed this week based on start dates from the recently recruited members of the team."
The Tánaiste Micheál Martin revealed in Dáil Éireann in October that University Hospital Waterford was hiring "18 new staff for weekend cover".
The recruitment phase of the process hit delays in Q3 last year despite Minister of State Mary Butler saying that it was her “expectation” that cardiac coverage would begin 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.”
Waterford News & Star revealed in November, that the recruitment was stalled due to a number of the 18 posts needing to be filled to resource the weekend service, requiring 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. At the time, Minister Mary Butler said she had “worked closely with UHW General Manager Ben O'Sullivan” to secure the sanction from the government for the backfilling of those roles. The approval was granted on October 16, 2024.
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%.”
The commencement of the service comes as the latest step forward in the 8-year campaign to achieve comprehensive cardiac coverage in Waterford. Following her appointment as Government Chief Whip, Minister of State Butler said that her position would allow her to "maintain a significant Ministerial presence at the Department of Health, meaning I can continue to push for and deliver expanded cardiac care services for Waterford and the South East."
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," she said. "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.”
The question of comprehensive cardiac coverage has long been on the ballot in the Déise. In an interview with Waterford News & Star following the announcement, former Independent Waterford TD Matt Shanahan explained that the journey for 24/7 cardiac care at UHW had begun twenty years ago: "While the key reference point in this matter is that in 2016, John Herity made a finding that the emergency service should actually cease operation at University Hospital Waterford and that all patients should be brought by ambulance to Cork, as a matter of form, or that a second cath lab should be built - but even then it [was recommended that UHW] would only do a diagnostic service."
Mr Shanahan said that 24/7 cardiac care had been the goal "going back to 2004 when the cath lab really started operating at a good level, so we're talking 20 years."
The frustration around the provision of cardiac care at University Hospital Waterford had boiled over in the Dáil in recent months, with both Deputy Shanahan and Sinn Féin spokesperson for Health, David Cullinane challenging the government party leaders on the delivery of cardiac care coverage in the closing sessions of the Dáil.
“Promises have been made and recycled,” said Independent TD for Waterford, Matt Shanahan, speaking in the Dáil in the aftermath of Budget 25 in October, “22,000 people marched in protest over the undelivered promise of 24/7 cardiac care in 2013. This issue is not new, nor is the frustration.”
Deputy Shanahan said: “The Taoiseach has a legacy here. As Minister for Health in 2016, he commissioned the Herity report, a document so riddled with errors that the word 'clinical' was misspelled on the front page. It was hastily thrown together, deliberately misinformed, marred by dodgy and incorrect data and is still used to shield inaction.
"When the flaws of that report became apparent, as Minister for Health in 2016 he commissioned the national review of specialist cardiac care services led by Philip Nolan. For the past six years, we have been told to wait for that review. The report remains buried on the desk of the Minister for Health.
Mr Shanahan claimed that the announcement of 24/7 cardiac care in the South East “played a role in [Fine Gael] regaining a seat in the election” and that Deputy Mary Butler was the “main beneficiary of that promise”.
“Last November on WLR's Damien Tiernan show, the Minister of State assured us that recruitment for a seven-day service would begin in January. In March, she had to return to assure us that recruitment would start in June. Again she returned and again nothing has happened.
"The promises are repeated but the people of Waterford wait.”
In response, Minister of State Mary Butler said at the time that weekend cardiac care at University Hospital Waterford was “due shortly”.
