John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

3. To ask the Minister for Health further to Questions Nos. 246 and 249 of 18 December 2013, if he will provide a guarantee that 24-7 cardiac cover will be introduced at University Hospital Waterford, UHW in the lifetime of the Government; his views that this service has been promised since 2010; the infrastructure that is currently lacking at the hospital, which prohibits the introduction of a full-time service; the plans his Department has to increase the staffing complement of consultant interventional cardiologists from its current three to six to operate a 24-7 unit; if funds have been ring-fenced to provide for this additional staffing; his further views that there is a sufficient level of care being provided to cardiac patients between the hours of 5 p.m. on Friday and 9 a.m. on Monday in the hospital; his views that no deaths will occur as a direct result of the lack of experienced cardiac cover at the weekends; the outcome of the Health Service Executive examination into options for the location of the long-awaited catheterization laboratory within the hospital; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8166/15]

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