Editorial: Life-saving cardiac intervention close to home - major step forward for Waterford but still only half way

While Waterford remains an outlier in terms of full cardiac cover, it is heartening to finally be at a point where life-saving intervention is available in the Déise and South East region at the weekends.

The comfort to those three families - whose loved ones were the first to be able to access emergency care at the weekend at University Hospital Waterford (UHW) - is immeasurable. 

Precious time to offer these people an optimum level of care, and ultimately greatly enhance the possibility of a positive and better outcome for their cardiac health now and into the future.

The increased hours commenced on the second last weekend of March, bringing the service from a five-day 8am to 8pm service to a seven-day 8am to 8pm service, which will include bank holidays.

It has been a long campaign to get to this point, with almost a decade having passed since the Herity Report saw people coming onto Waterford city's streets in their thousands in protest at the enduring reality of health inequality. It was a time that saw health professionals from UHW standing shoulder to shoulder with politicians and ordinary Waterford citizens, taking a stand to make people aware nationally of the seriousness of the situation, of the reality in terms of healthcare outcomes.

But the journey is not at an end. 

In Waterford today, our people still only have 50% cardiac care cover in any given week. Heart attacks don't limit themselves to 8am-8pm; as many Waterford families can attest to they can and often occur during those long hours of nighttime.

Campaign continues

For that reason, the Southeast 24/7 Cardiac Care Campaign were out again last week in Waterford city, raising awareness of the urgent requirement to expand the service to 24/7 hours.

Long a political football, ironically it was promised by current Taoiseach Micheál Martin of Fianna Fáil, in a now infamous election photo taken outside University Hospital Waterford with Minister Mary Butler in 2016. The tag-line on the banner held by a smiling Mr Martin read: "Fianna Fáil will secure 24/7 Cardiac Care in UHW," neatly followed by the slogan, "Mary Butler, An Ireland for All".

Yet, we still wait.

As Mick Daniels graphically puts it: “For 12 out of every 24 hours, that cath lab remains closed and people will continue to die and people will continue to suffer permanent damage to their hearts. What is supposed to be a fully developed, modern country has an entire region who are denied something that is generally regarded as a basic human right throughout the western world."

Among those people to mark the milestone of 8 to 8 seven-day cardiac care were long-time campaigner and former TD Matt Shanahan, as well as newly elected Senator Joe Conway.

It is now incumbent on all our TDs, and in particular those in government, to campaign vociferously for a full rollout of this service so that our people can be properly served 100 percent of the time.

This regional disparity must end - Waterford and South East lives matter.