Up to ten thousand people have marched in Waterford city calling for 24/7 cardiac services at University Hospital Waterford.
The South East Broken Hearts protest was to once again highlight the lack of 24/7 interventional cardiac care at UHW.
The march began at the Glen and proceeded towards John Roberts Square, and involved local and national campaign groups as well as trade unions and political parties.
The protest came at the end of a week that saw two patients, who suffered heart attacks, needing to be brought in separate ambulances to Cork in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Joan O’Shea from Templeorum in south Kilkenny was among those who turned out. She was among those who were unhappy that UHW is the only nationally designated that does not provide a 24/7 service.
“We have it Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 – that’s the only time you can have a heart attack in Waterford. And you can see from the crowd here today, there’s more than me thinking that.”
An activist from the South East Patients Advocacy Group, Yvonne Cooney said she felt that the campaign’s message was starting to make an impact: “I think people are finally starting to realise that this can impact anybody at any stage. for a long time I think it was people who had been directly affected but now the wider message is getting out there. We’re not going to accept the crumbs from the table or the broken promises anymore.”
Waterford TD David Cullinane said progress had been made and the “collective efforts of campaign groups, local and regional politicians and people power the Government moved and have provided the funding for a second cath lab”. He added that both labs must be able to perform diagnostic and intervention work, however he said:
“The priority is to deliver 24/7 emergency PPCI. The South East has a population of 500,000 people. University Hospital Waterford needs to provide all modalities of cardiac care on a 24/7 basis. The people will continue to campaign until this is achieved.”
