Waterford Minister Mary Butler has responded to claims made by two Waterford TDs regarding cardiac care at UHW.
Waterford TD's Matt Shanahan and David Cullinane put questions to the Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly and An Taoiseach Simon Harris in the Dáil recently as was reported yesterday.
In a statement to WLR this morning, Minister for Mental Health and Older People, Mary Butler, said progress has been made at the UHW cardiac care department.
“To say there has been no progress from the days of the 9 am-5 pm, five-day service is simply not credible. The second cath lab has been in place since 2023 at an investment of €7million. Almost 24 staff were recruited last year which has assisted greatly in the extension of services to 8 am-8 pm, Monday to Friday. Recruitment is now well underway for the weekend coverage, 8am-8pm seven days a week.
“The General Manager of UHW has advised me that the recruitment process is going well. There are just a couple of issues there in relation to the backfilling of posts for those who secured a job but are part of UHW, their post must be backfilled. We’re working through that at the moment. Our expectation was that we would see weekend coverage in place by the start of next month, but I am hesitant to give out timelines. Sometimes issues can arise that are no one’s fault, they are just issues that can occur as part of any recruitment process.
“24/7 is 100% Cardiac Care coverage. When we have this weekend service in place, and it is due shortly, the Clinicians have advised me that we will be at 90-95% coverage of all cases. From there, it will take another final push at the Department of Health to reach the magic number of 100%.”
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