CARDIAC CONSULTANT ISSUES WARNING ON TRANSFERS TO GALWAY

Date Published: 10-Oct-2012

A leading cardiac consultant is warning that lives are being put at risk over a policy to transport out of hours heart attack patients from Limerick to hospital in Galway.

In an interview with the Irish Times, Dr Brendan Meaney says the decision to bypass the mid western regional hospital, a centre of excellence, would result in ‘disaster’.

He says it would be very difficult to make Galway in an hour, and a sick patient could suffer further complications en route.

On weekends and after 5pm on weekdays, ambulance crew have been instructed to bring some cardiac patients to Galway University Hospital instead of the mid-western regional hospital in Limerick.