Councillors from across the south east were a given a tour of University Hospital Waterford’s cath lab on Friday evening.

The aim of the event was to emphasise the need for a second cath lab to political parties and Independents in the region ahead of May’s local elections.

A national review of cardiology services is due to be released in June.

Waterford Sinn Féin councillor Jim Griffin said the tour was very educational.

They were shown live footage of procedures and heard first hand why the second facility was needed:

“The mobile cath lab is perfect for the diagnostics, but the more diagnostics they’re getting through it’s stacking up the people who need procedures – PCI’s, stents put in – and that’s the frightening part because the graph they showed us tonight is ever increasing. And it’s increasing considerably since the Herity report was done, so there’s no doubt there’s a flaw in the report”.

Roughly 130 councillors and executives from Waterford, Kilkenny, Wexford and south Tipperary were invited to the tour.

Up to 50 turned up, many of whom were from Waterford.

Jim Griffin says more needs to be done to mobilise people across the south east.