Weekend rally planned in Waterford over hospital cardiac services

Campaigners for round-the-clock cardiac services in Waterford are to take to the streets this weekend in what they claim will be one of the largest protests seen in the city.

The South East Patient Advocacy Group says the protest is to highlight the Government’s failure to implement promises made by former Minister for Health James Reilly to provide 24/7 cardiac care in Waterford.

Their action follows weeks of controversy over the provision of cardiac services at University Hospital Waterford, which is the only centre nationally with just a single catheterisation lab for treating heart attack patients.

Local TD and Minister of State John Halligan has threatened to resign unless services are upgraded. Mr Halligan has strongly criticised a Government-commissioned report by independent cardiologist Niall Herity, which recommended against a second cath lab and said some high-level services should be moved from Waterford to Cork and Dublin.

The advocacy group has accused the current Minister Simon Harris, of refusing to implement the promise.

“This failed administration now has an unequivocal record of false promises to the 500,000 people of the south east region across a range of essential services at UHW,” said Hilary O’Neill, one of the group’s founders.

“Any one of us, you or I or a loved one, could find ourselves relying on urgent cardiology services that will not be there to care for us, at a critical time in our lives.”

Another organiser, Yvonne Cooney, said it was “a matter of life and death”.

“We are outraged at how we have been treated. This Government is refusing to invest in cardiology services for 500,000 people, which equates to 10 per cent of the population, by refusing to implement a second cath lab at UHW.”

She said it was shameful for Mr Harris to “show us the back of his hand” by refusing to meet the consultants at the hospital. Medical consultants at the hospital have called on the HSE to explain why the risk assessment attached to cardiac services in the hospital was reduced weeks before an official report recommended a downgrading of services.

The medical board in the hospital say they are “appalled” a decision was taken at hospital group level to reduce the risk relating to cardiology services in Waterford and the absence of a second catheterisation lab to treat heart attack patients.

HSE officials in the South/South-West hospital group changed the risk posed to patients by the lack of cardiac facilities at University Hospital Waterford in late August, The Irish Times reported on Saturday.

The rating, which stood at 20 on a scale reaching 25 for the previous three years, was changed to 16.

The HSE has said the risk rating for cardiology in Waterford has not been changed. This is a reference to a risk maintained inhouse at UHW.

However, the equivalent entry in the risk register maintained by the hospital group, which is the register provided to the HSE nationally, has been changed.

The medical board says the decision was taken without any due process of consultation and without the input of the clinical directors in Waterford.

“Furthermore, we note, with disquiet, that the downgraded risk score would potentially hinder attempts by the SE to defend the interventional cardiology service in the face of the recommendations of this disputed report.

“We would therefore ask that the HSE, and specifically the leadership group in the SSWHG, explain this extraordinary intervention, and in particular clarify the mechanisms of governance that can lead to such arbitrary change in corporate risk assessments without due process.”

The comments appear in a statement released by Dr Paul Crowley, chairman of the medical board at UHW, following a meeting of consultants. The protest takes place on Saturday at 2pm.