Imagine ALL the people!

“No need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man.”

On Saturday last, we all marched, once again, for the very basic of welfare state rights. Better cardiac care, serviced by University Hospital Waterford.

I would estimate that around circa 6,000 took part in the march and I noted, perhaps for the first time on such an occasion, that there were significant numbers of “Older people” taking part. This was the silver generation getting out and voting with their feet. Something that Government should be very wary of, as this generation has real teeth (well some do)!

The social media pages have been awash with TDs’, posting pictures to let their adoring hordes know that they marched for us. With perhaps the exception of one, who has made it very clear that he will stand by his man. The youthful Minister Harris and that now infamous Herity report? A report that was given such precise “Terms of reference”, it would have been impossible to have had a different outcome.

Whilst, three quarters of the Waterford brigade were out in force, there appeared to be very little political support from our other sister counties. This is the root of our poor showing on this issue.

The national media and Government, see this as Waterford’s problem and NOT the South Easts’ problem. It suits the trolls working the corridors of power, to go out of their way to ignore so called one horse town issues. “LOOK! We are running a country.” Is that Waterford we hear moaning once again?

A Government so full of really quite clever, bright people, greedily working the system to massage their parish pump egos. We are very poor at this type of politics. It would suit our neighbours to have muted colleagues sharing a county boundary.

Unfortunately, we witnessed on Saturday little or no support from our nearest neighbours. Our fellow citizens, who are without doubt far worse off in terms of the Blues and Twos travel time, to Cork or Dublin. Swathes of Wexford are significantly over the “You’ve got 90 minutes or you might be dead”, life saving window. Yet, there seems to be absolutely little or no concern shown whatsoever?

The local newspapers across Wexford, Tipp and Kilkenny, will probably carry very very few column inches on the march. Some are just too concerned and preoccupied, with portraying Waterford Council, as acting like Adolf ‘H’ whilst attempting a 1939 style “Land grab”, than the health of a substantial proportion of their readership. They don’t see this as a regional issue. It’s as if the message is just not getting out to the people in these affected areas.

The people across the South East have for years and years, not been treated equally. There is no brotherhood of man. We pay the same taxes and yet we are constantly left short changed. Institutionalised discrimination towards Waterford appears to be a tsunami that cannot be stopped unless we have the support of those around us. Yet, getting that support will prove harder than finding a set of hen’s teeth. In fact, I fear it might be easier for us to seek out and discover, the whereabouts of the Holy Grail!

Our part-time catheterisation laboratory is of course welcome good news. Yet we have to accept the absence of no concrete plans as to when this life saving unit might arrive. Even more importantly, start operating. No one knows what those hours of operation might be? We don’t know how long it will be in situ? Will we even have sufficient extra staff to allow it to be operated efficiently? These open ended questions are just De Rigueur for Waterford. I can assure you this wouldn’t happen in Cork, Dublin or Limerick!

 

So, how do we move forward on this prickly issue? The campaign needs the urgent and fast mobilisation from the people across the region. For sure we all know that!

But here is the hard part. Is there truthfully the appetite for those people to get involved? Where are the voices asking, “We’ve got 90 minutes or we might be dead!!!!” 

“Are we there yet?”

“Are we there yet?” are the very words that we all fear, here in Waterford and the South East, when directly related to ambulance transfer times for cardiac patients.

These are the dreaded four words that no wife, husband, father, mother, brother, sister, grandmother or grandfather will every wish to ask, when accompanying a loved one, unfortunate enough to need cardiac care outside the Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm window available in University Hospital Waterford.

If you have not experienced the anxiety of this horrifying journey, and I have not, to Cork or Dublin, in the back of an ambulance, then none of us can understand the stress of knowing that the clock is ticking ever so slowly to and, more than likely, beyond that 90 minute safety window.

The simple fact is that getting to Cork and Dublin, even with the blues and twos, will in truth take longer than 90 minutes. One simple hold up, one unaccounted for set of road works, a sporting weekend, a car crash or simply hitting rush hour traffic, will eat into this safety time zone. No matter what spin is put on this by Minister Harris or other Government Ministers it would be a miracle if that 90 minute window, could ever be achieved in the real the world.

Perhaps, the Minister has never driven to Cork along the N25? It is at best an o.k. road and at worst full of bottlenecks, eating into any journey time. The road does not allow for consistent travel and therefore we cannot rely on time to getting to our sister Cork hospital for coronary care within the golden timeframe.

Going to Dublin now has a much better dependable journey time, up the M9 motorway. That is until you hit the outskirts of Dublin. Once again you are in the hands of the traffic gods and getting into the heart of Dublin can be hit or miss. Even if you are in the back of an ambulance, when every second counts, it is still a time gamble.

24th September 2016

Our Minister is adamant that he is “not for turning”, a modern day Mrs Thatcher perhaps. He has been at pains to let everyone know that the Herity Report, with all its flaws, will be taken as Gospel. The people in this South East region will forever be playing traffic roulette in the back of an ambulance.

I recall meeting Minister Harris, on a number of occasions, in his previous role with reference to his old portfolio, which included responsibility for national Government tendering. Thankfully, he listened to our reasoned and sound arguments to make changes, to allow local businesses to compete with multi-national companies and he did implement change on this basis. So we can take some encouragement from this. He is sometimes willing to listen.

As I have said many times, perhaps we have gone about this in the wrong way! Look at our Teflon neighbour, Mr Lowry, getting ALL that he wanted, in terms of local health care provision for Tipperary. We would not have heard about this, only that we started looking at what other “Government Independents” were getting for helping Enda come back into power. Mr Lowry went about his business quietly, methodically and ultimately delivered “exactly what it said on the tin” of his election manifesto.

Hook & Browne?

Have we been too naive in fighting this battle in the glare of the national media? Quite simply we have given the likes of Messer Hook and Browne the opportunity to use a substantial baseball bat, to bash Waterford once again. They are collectively laughing at us from their Dublin Towers. But rest assured if they were unfortunate enough to have to endure a 90 minute life or death journey in the back of an ambulance then their mindset would change in an instant.

We marched once again in monsoon like conditions, at the weekend, and received breviloquent RTE coverage. Where now for the Waterford and the South East?

What is guaranteed is that it will take more than 90 minutes to fix this dilemma.

“Peace for our time!”

"It is peace for our time" the headlines would read.

As the country moves ever so slowly towards a minority Government, we have in recent days, seen much trumpeting from John Halligan TD and the promise of 24 hour cardiac care at University Hospital Waterford.

In addition, it has been indicated from Halligan, that there will also be good news for Waterford in terms of increased funding for Waterford Regional Airport. Changing the criteria to allow Waterford Institute of Technology to pursue a solo bid, if they so desire, for a change in status to a “Technological University”.

Like all these promises the devil really is in the detail and whilst Halligan has laid ALL his cards, face up, on the table he insists that 24 hour cardiac care is only a few “hearts beats” away. However, we have not actually seen sight of the piece of paper that will commit this rag tag minority Government to deliver what was one of Halligan’s election promises. 

Lessons from history show us that people in the public eye, particularly political figures, must be extremely careful what they say and promise. I can now see Waterford, holding its collective breath, waiting for that embossed, letter headed piece of paper from Minister Noonan and the Department of Finance, committing the circa €10,000,000, identified by Halligan, to finally deliver the much needed 24 hour cardiac care to University Hospital Waterford.

I do hope that Halligan has not made the cardinal error of “Doing a Chamberlain”!

On 30^th September 1938 the then British Prime Minister, returned to Heston Airport waving an A4 sheet of paper and declaring that after direct talks with Chancellor Hitler that there would be “Peace for our time”. History has shown that the letter signed by Adolf Hitler was nothing more than a tactic to stall for more time and to keep the Allies out of a direct conflict with Germany.

 All smiles & Benny Hill!

Chamberlain saw this as an opportunity to deliver for the people of Great Britain and boy oh boy did this back fire in the most monumental way. It is interesting to note that the plane in which Chamberlain retuned to London had an identification mark of G-AFGN – there are a few anagrams in there somewhere!

I know that Halligan has without doubt, had to wrestle with his conscience, consider his own values and those of his vast electoral base to have to “jump into bed” with a minority FG Government. It even looks likely that he will be given a seat as a Junior Minister when all the dust has settled. This decision I am sure does not sit kindly with many of his voters and in fact the vitriol across the various social media platforms last week was nothing short of shocking.

Many, I am sure are feeling betrayed and no matter how much spin is put out by the Halligan Camp, there will be some substantial fallout in terms of future voter support.

The caveat is of course, that if Halligan has secured the circa €10,000,000 funding and more importantly a proper structured plan to give the 24 hour cardiac care longevity for the South East, then we must all applaud his efforts and the labours of the many people lobbying hard in the background.

Halligan will no doubt be hoping for extra letters securing additional airport funding and that a resolution to the university issue will also be forthcoming.

TD Halligan

Time will tell, if the recent hyperbole of promises will actually be delivered for Waterford and I for one hope that the A4 embossed letters are imminent, so that we can start planning Waterford’s future.

If these three election hot potatoes are delivered by Halligan, before the end of the summer, then he must be applauded by everyone and even more so if he has had to make the impossible decision of, “Sleeping with the enemy”.

I do hope that the letters Halligan will eventually wave to the assembled media hordes, will deliver and there will be no anagrams in sight!