The South East is the only region in the country still without a 24/7 emergency cardiac care service
The latest service could be operational in a year's time
“We’re still not where we need to get to, but we’re on the road”.
That’s Independent TD Matt Shanahan’s response to news that a builder’s been appointed for the new Waterford Cath lab.
The long-awaited regional facility is expected to be commissioned within 13 months, allowing for a service start in just over a year’s time.
Deputy Shanahan’s told KCLR News “It’s very good news, it now means that the build tender has been awarded for the second cath lab in Waterford and this would allow us to build a capacity in the cardiac services here which would mean we will not hopefully in the future be sending large amounts of our patients from the South East to hospitals in Cork and Dublin for treatment”.
He adds “What’s going to happen now hopefully is very soon the service hours will expand; they’re presently 39 hours per week, it’ll expand to seven days a week, 8 to 8, twelve hours per day so that’s a significant increase but it’s not 24/7 and this region still remains the only region in the country without a 24/7 emergency cardiac care service and that’s what we need to continue to work towards”.
