Faugheen wrote: » I'm with Halligan on this one. I'm not from Waterford nor am I an IA supporter by any means, but I'm in the catchment area for UHW. Last winter, Dungarvan was like an island. Imagine someone in my family needed cardiac treatment out of hours at that time? The ambulance wouldn't have had a chance of getting through Dungarvan (the main road to Cork) and Now imagine 10/20 other families were in the same boat around the same time? Imagine someone died on the transfer to CUH? Is that what it's going to take for people to realise UHW needs 24/7 cardiac services? If it prevents the above scenario then it serves it's purpose. People who aren't from this area calling Halligan this, that and everything else need not to comment on something they know nothing about. This is a far bigger issue for people than just John Halligan and people living in Waterford. Three other counties need to be considered here too. He's just the first person trying to get something done about it. He went into Government on the assumption this would happen. If FG go back on it, why should he stay around? He doesn't go into government if this isn't promised so why should he stick around if it's recommended to be reduced?
JMT2016 wrote: » Because that makes good sense! Interestingly the report page 20 only allows 53% of South Tipp population to Waterford catchment- surely cork aren't using that other 47% to boost their numbers as well!
Annabella1 wrote: » Patients from South Tipp General Hospital go to CUH via motorway
JMT2016 wrote: » Dr. Herity was interviewed this morning by Cathal MacCoille on Radio 1. Was disappointed by it. Cathal was using the wrong figures in the report - he should have been using the table on page 20 and this wasted valuable time to discuss the key issues. Cathal did mention the catchment area but didn't probe Dr. Herity's answer. No mention of why 74% of the population of Kilkenny is left out of Dr. Herity's catchment area for example. Also no questioning of the downgrade of the emergency care suggested by Dr. Herity - surely this controversial finding merited at least one question? To end on a positive note, he did put it to Dr. Herity to explain how the people of South Wexford who would be well over 2 hours from the treatment would be treated? This was the only time Dr. Herity struggled throughout the interview and his answer was left wanting especially his need to point out that there were some other parts of the country in a similar situation. Of course he didn't highlight that these areas were sparsely populated and not a regional hub of several hundred thousand people. The interview did get across that this is a regional issue which has been somewhat missed with several people and media outlets taking advantage of the opportunity to have potshots at John Halligan at the expense of the serious healthcare issues at play.
evani1976 wrote: » Its depressing what people are throwing at Halligan, he seems to have genuine integrity. Agree 100% about South Wexford, if there was only 1 person outside 2 hour intervention period that should still be a reason for 24/7 care. Everyone in Ireland should have access to same level of care.
JMT2016 wrote: » Actually I'm wrong - there is one winner out of all this - it is the cardiology team in the hospital. They are actually AMAZING and the fact that they can DELIVER such a wonderful caseload with only 24% opening hours compared to the other 24/7 cardiology units is truly a miracle. The fact that this has been brought to national attention via the report is actually a success story we shouldn't forget about!
evani1976 wrote: » Would 24/7 care not also create a more pro active enviroment with increased screening , early diagnosis and possibly save money long term.
University Hospital Waterford provides general medical, surgical and maternity care to people living in South Kilkenny, Waterford City and County. The hospital provides specialty services to the population of the south east c. 500 000 in the following areas of clinical practice:Cardiology (including Interventional Cardiac Procedures), Trauma Orthopaedics, Opthalmology, Neurology, Nephrology, Rheumatology, Urology, Vascular Surgery, ENT and Neonatology, Radiology, Pathology and Microbiology.
FA Hayek wrote: » The people I talk to know that this issue is nothing more the parish pump localism. How much money are we talking here to provide this service, per year?
O Riain wrote: » I think the tide is starting to turn on the the news stories regarding the report. Here's the Irish time discussing the increase in wait lists since we became administrated by cork:http://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/waterford-hospital-waiting-lists-rise-161-since-2013-1.2786162?mode=sample&auth-failed=1&pw-origin=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fhealth%2Fwaterford-hospital-waiting-lists-rise-161-since-2013-1.2786162 Fairly shocking figure
JMT2016 wrote: » Here is my reply to your post:http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=101001397#post101001397
FA Hayek wrote: » Your reply did not include any figure to how much this will cost. Are people seriously asking for a service and they do not know how much this service will cost per year to provide. Shoddy stuff!
evani1976 wrote: » This is a vital life saving service. People in South East deserve same treatment as any other part of country. We pay same taxes as anyone else in Ireland.
Irish Examiner wrote: ‘I’d be less a child if she had cardiac arrest after 5pm’ If Willie Doyle’s daughter had been an hour later getting to Waterford hospital, he doubts if she would be alive today. “My daughter [Jennifer Pheasey, 41] had a cardiac arrest at 4.30pm on a Friday. We were told that if it had happened an hour later she wouldn’t have survived. I’d be less a daughter, her children would be less a mother, and her husband would be less a wife,” he told the Irish Examiner. “She had been moving things earlier in the day and thought it was just a muscle pain but she went to her GP. The GP sent her straight over to casualty in Waterford hospital. “We got a call to say our daughter was dying and to come straight down. She was attended to straight away and had a stent fitted.” This was two years ago now and, ever since, the family has campaigned as the ‘24/7 Cardiac Cover for the South East’ group. At the moment, the cardiac unit of University Hospital Waterford (UHW) only operates on a 9am-5pm basis, Monday to Friday. “If you have a cardiac arrest, it means the blood supply to your heart is interrupted. You need a stent fitted, and you have 90 minutes maximum in which to do that,” said Mr Doyle. “So if you’re in Dublin, Cork, Galway, or Limerick and you have a cardiac arrest you can be treated 24/7, 365 days of the year. “But if you’re in the south-east and UHW is your nearest hospital, you can only have a cardiac arrest Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm, that’s when the unit is open. “When it comes to 5 o’clock, you’ve to go down to Cork. They say you can get down in an ambulance but, to get from the hospital out onto the dual carriageway, the ambulance has to negotiate 14 roundabouts. “They also say you could go by helicopter but that means having a helicopter on standby from 5 o’clock. And furthermore, there isn’t a helipad in UHW or in Cork.” Mr Doyle also explained the lack of services is not just an issue for the entire south-east region. “If you look at the south-east — that’s Wexford, Waterford, city and county, Kilkenny, and south Tipperary; that’s a population of half a million for UHW to cater for. That’s the region,” he said. “It’s about saving lives in the south-east and it doesn’t matter if you save one life or 10 lives — every life counts.”
JMT2016 wrote: » Lots of interesting coverage in the papers today about the South East Campaign for Emergency Healthcare. Not least the headline in the Sunday Independent http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/i-will-rain-hell-on-this-government-35039206.html From what I have read in the coverage I am again disappointed that there seems to be the assumption that the report cannot be questioned. One expert, who made the catchment area a matter of opinion rather than fact and who was told "the service would be a waste of very limited resources", made some real analytical howlers to justify the unacceptable status quo. Now we must all bow in unquestioning reverence? It's so bad that Mr. Harris won't even meet the consultants in Waterford who clearly must know what is going on above everyone else. Either way, it is now clear that this issue is not going away. It has gone nuclear and will now dominate the media for the next week, at least until John Halligan appears on the Late Late Show next Friday (according to the Sunday Independent). Do people really think that Halligan got elected championing a total non-issue?
FA Hayek wrote: » I think people in Waterford are seriously misguiding the issue nationally. The vast vast majority of people, in fact no one I have been talking to is on the side of Halligan here. Everyone can see through the nonsense.
Why is it that once again the people of this region are brought to their knees and have to beg for a life saving service that the rest of the country has. Is it because some of the elected politicians in the SOUTH EAST are not vocal or strong enough to fight for this issue and deliver what we are entitled to. The Cardiac Unit at UHW is one of the 5 Centres Of Excellence in the country for cardiac intervention but only opens 9 to 5, Monday to Friday. It is beyond comprehension for a report to suggest that critically ill cardiac patients should have to endure a road journey to Cork ( subject to ambulance availability ) or a helicoptor journey ( subject to availability as it is primarily for coastguard duties with no landing pad in either UHW or CUH) and all of this while your lifesaving minutes are ticking away.
JMT2016 wrote: » Do you think the vast vast majority of people believe for one second that Jennifer's story is remotely acceptable? Do you think the vast vast majority of people would think it reasonable to be less a daughter, mother, wife because of a failing, dysfunctional, mean, penny-pinching approach to a whole region which has been carved up to facilitate an ideology which is resulting in an unhealthy unique dependence on Dublin and Cork at the expense of people's lives?
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