UHW begins weekend cardiac care coverage schedule today
University Hospital Waterford (UHW) entrance to Accident and Emergency Department
Waterford and the South East will have cardiac care coverage at University Hospital Waterford this weekend for the first time, following the commencement of a new staffing schedule to allow for the extension of care to the weekend.
In a statement to Waterford News & Star, the HSE Dublin & South East said: "We are delighted to see the start of a seven day 8am – 8pm, on call STEMI service beginning today", March 18.
The extension of coverage was hailed as an important milestone for the cardiology service of University Hospital Waterford and for the South East region by the HSE.
The extension brings the on-call service from a five-day 8am–8pm service to a 7-day 8am–8pm service including Bank Holidays.
A driving force behind various campaigns for the provision of cardiac care coverage in the south east, former TD Matt Shanahan described the extension as "great news" but warned "we still need to get to a full 24/7 service".
"Even with the seven-day, 12-hour service, we will still only have 50% access over the week. Many people will be coming out saying [the extension of hours] will give us 90-95% cover of patients. That is not true," Mr Shanahan said, while standing outside UHW.
The Independent politician stressed that the calculation of the number of cardiac incidents the new service will cover: "Needs to count all patients, including those who are presently referred out of the region who would come to this centre if it was open."
"This is still a great day and a great achievement for all the people in the south east" said Mr Shanahan, who expressed his "deepest gratitude" to the staff at UHW for enabling the extended service hours.
"We must make a special commendation to the doctors who, in 2016, went to Dublin at risk of great reputation damage to themselves to protest the Herity report which wanted to take all emergency interventional access from this hospital," Mr Shanahan said.
Mr Shanahan, who founded the Health Equality for the South East group and was behind the Hand On Heart campaign, thanked everybody those who protested and campaigned on the issue.
