A Waterford Councillor says the provision of cardiac care at University Hospital Waterford seems to be moving backwards.
It's after confirmation that the hospital's Vascular lab is not currently active due to the retirement of a member of staff.
The vascular lab carries out non-invasive diagnostic studies which doctors use to confirm a diagnosis and determine a course of treatment.
In a statement to WLR, hospital management say they are actively engaged in recruiting a replacement doctor and every effort is being made to speed up the process.
However Sinn Fein's John Hearne says a number of questions remain unanswered.
"Will the patients have to go to Cork now, can they do the same work here? A lot of people would be elderly with bad veins, do they have to travel to Cork? Have they been informed? Is there a backlog because of this? It's an absolute disgrace that this is happening, that another vital component of our hospital is out of commission and it has taken two weeks to tell us that."
John Hearne says there seems to be issues around recruitment at the hospital.
"Are we going backwards now with recruitment?....We don't seem to be able to recruit people."
