Second cath lab for heart care to be built in southeast

A SECOND lab to provide diagnoses and treatments to heart attack patients is to be built on the grounds of University Hospital Waterford.

However, campaigners are unhappy that the new catheterisation lab will not be open 24 hours a day.

A cath lab is an examination room in a hospital with imaging equipment used to examine the arteries and chambers of the heart and treat abnormalities found.

The campaign for a second cath lab at UHW gained momentum last year when local farmer Tom Power died in an ambulance after he presented at the hospital on a Sunday afternoon with chest pains but had to be sent to University Hospital Cork as the cath lab in Waterford does not open at weekends.

His sister, Catherine Power, said yesterday that the southeast is still being treated differently to other parts of the country when it comes to cardiac services. ‘Our health system is like something in a third world country,’ she said. ‘It’s like a badly-built house, no money being pumped in and it’s starting to collapse.’

Health Minister Simon Harris confirmed that the National Review of Specialist Cardiac Services, including the provision of 24-7 cardiac care in the southeast, will be complete next June.

Meanwhile, a new community air ambulance service covering the south of the country will be launched in October.

This service will be based at Mallow in Co. Cork and available for medical emergencies during daylight hours. It will be staffed by the ambulance services, who will be used at serious accident sites and also to transfer patients between hospitals.