Health Service Workers must have respect and support.

Issued : Tuesday 20 May, 2014
Areas : Waterford & South East

It has become clearer than ever to me, in speaking at doors to health service staff of all types and the general public besides, that Waterford is well placed to deliver – provided it gets the support. I share a “tremendous admiration that is out there” for the well over 2,000 men and women doing their best to deliver hospital, elderly care, mental health and other specialist and community health services in Waterford. Apart from their vital roles in tending to the public in the city and county – and regionally for the South East in many cases - I also believe that the spending power of health workers in the local economy cannot be underestimated.

Whilst acknowledging a list of items across the sectors that need urgent tending to – I wish to refer to my own role in trying to secure the funding necessary to ensure the new 100 bed community nursing unit proceeds as planned at St. Patrick’s Hospital – I would suggest that an emphasis on the positive shouldn’t be forgotten:

 “Hundreds of people have the shoulder to the wheel every day at University Hospital Waterford. In any given day, around 400 people are – in the main – excellently cared
for as inpatients there. Throughout the year, extraordinary work goes into ensuring that over 130,000 outpatient appointments are processed, over 40,000 Emergency Department attendances are dealt with, over 22,300 day procedures carried out, approximately 14,000 dialysis treatments administered and over 2,200 births facilitated. I find from the general public that once the system is accessed, there is a very high level of satisfaction. That sense is not confined to UHW, you’ll hear similar praise for the Community Care services and also in terms of mental health, care for children, the older person and the disabled – whether in a residential or community setting.”

 “Ardkeen”, we are advised, in its new relationship with UCC, will be able to compete for and recruit the best clinical talent available. We are also advised that UHW will continue to operate as a regional Cancer Centre, will be the South East hub for the renal service and remain a regional trauma centre (including Emergency Dept., Ear Nose & Throat and Ophthalmology). UWH will also continue to provide invasive cardiology services for the South-East population and, as we know, there is a commitment to ensure that this develops to the point of being a 24/7 service. The staff and the public need to see these being delivered on.

“There is a long standing tradition of providing excellent hospital and health care in Waterford. We must not be left behind in the present reorganisation of hospitals and the Irish health delivery system, we must be at the forefront of it. There is a challenge there, however, to ensure the widest range of services are delivered effectively for the public in Waterford and the South East. The health service staff that I meet are committed to that task and they have my respect and full support.