Cardiac care services will be provided on a 24/7 basis at University Hospital Waterford, following more than a decade of campaigning.
It has been operating on an 8am-8pm service since March 2025, but the HSE confirmed yesterday that the service will be expanded from July and will cover the HSE Dublin and south east region.
Former independent TD for Waterford Matt Shanahan, who has been one of many campaigners for 24/7 services for nearly 15 years, said there had been "significant resistance" to expanding it beyond the 8am-5pm service.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Mr Shanahan said a 2016 report cited that "emergency patients could be adequately dealt with from this region by transporting them to either centres in Dublin and Cork", which he was "resisted forcibly" by clinicians in Waterford at the time.
Data from 2015 to 2018 showed that less than 3% of patients in the southeast region were getting to a cardiac centre within the clinical time frame, Mr Shanahan said.
He said he brought this data to the Dáil and to then tánaiste Leo Varadkar, highlighting that of 135 blue-light transfers to Cork, "not one reached the hospital within the clinical timeframe".
"The fact that it has taken so long even to get the present service mandated… to get it up to a five-day 8am-8pm schedule, to an eight-day schedule and now to 24/7, has taken too long," he said.
He said that when the service is fully in place, he will be calling on Oireachtas members to conduct a look back, adding that he hopes all southeast TDs and senators will call for a review "to understand how it could have taken 10 years … to actually deliver this service to the south east region".
Sinn Féin Spokesperson on Health David Cullinane said in a statement said the new expanded service "will save lives".
He said: "When someone suffers a serious cardiac event, time is muscle and time is life. Patients in Waterford and the southeast should have access to emergency cardiac care when they need it, not only during limited hours.
"The current 8am to 8pm, seven-day service has never been enough for a region of this size. Moving to a full 24/7 service is the right thing to do and something patients, campaigners, clinicians and public representatives have called for over many years.
"I will continue to engage with the HSE and the Minister for Health to ensure that recruitment is completed, the timeline is met, and the service is fully operational in Q3 2026," the Waterford TD added.
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