A protest will take place in the region's capital this afternoon to fight for improved services at University Hospital Waterford.
People from across the South East are being urged to turn out and support UHW's campaign for a second cath lab, which was recently rejected in the Herity Report. The report instead recommended that emergency heart attack treatment be removed entirely from Waterford to Cork.
The report has since been dismissed as inaccurate and flawed by leading cardiologists in the South East.
The event today is being organised by the South East Patients Advocacy Group which is a community group of people. They are appealling to people of the entire South East region to come out and voice their protest at the ongoing erosion of services including cardiology services at University Hospital Waterford.
Hilary O’Neill, one of the founders of the South East Patient Advocacy Group says "The people of the South East were promised 24/7 cardiac care and no depletion of other services at University Hospital Waterford after the compilation of the Higgins Report in 2012. This failed administration now has an unequivocal record of false promises to the 500,000 people of the South East region across a range of essential services at UHW. Any one of us, you or I or a loved one, could find ourselves relying on urgent cardiology services that will not be there to care for us at a critical time in our lives."
Yvonne Cooney who is one of the organisers says "This is a matter of life and death. It is a regional rebuffal. We want people in the region to stand up for the South East and to seek to have this deplorable decision overturned immediately. We are outraged at how we have been treated. This government is refusing to invest in cardiology services for 500,000 people which equates to 10% of the population by refusing to implement a second cath lab at UHW. It is shameful how the Minister for Health took such an outrageous, arrogant approach and showed us the back of his hand in refusing to meet the medics at the Hospital."
The People's Protest will assemble at The Glen in Waterford City at 2pm.
