Fears over lack of cardiac facilities

PATIENTS in the south- east are further from cardiac catheterisation facilities for heart screening than anyone else in the country.

Cardiac catheterisation is a procedure performed to verify the presence and degree of narrowing or blockages in the arteries feeding the heart. Such facilities are routinely available in Galway, Limerick, Cork, Dublin and a number of Northern Ireland Hospitals.

There are catheterisation angiographic labs in Tullamore and Sligo but bureaucratic delays are preventing the development of a Regional Catheterisation Laboratory at Waterford Regional Hospital, according to local TD Brian O’Shea.