New mortuary to be built at Waterford hospital
A new mortuary will be built at University Hospital Waterford, after funding of €5.67m was approved.
Sinn Féin TD for Waterford David Cullinane has received a letter from the HSE which says the facility will open in two years.
"Today, I received a letter from the HSE confirming that funding of €5.67m has been approved for the new mortuary," said Deputy Cullinane.
"This is a welcome development and one that is years overdue.
It is unfortunate that it took the recent scandal to move things forward – a scandal that caused extreme anxiety for the families concerned.
The new mortuary will have 14 extra spaces as well as four post mortem tables, an increase of two tables.
Construction is not expected to be completed until the end of March 2021 and it will not be operational until June 2021.
Earlier this year, a group of consultants wrote to the HSE to say that the hospital's mortuary was over capacity and some dead bodies had to be stored on corridors.
Deputy Cullinane says if it was not for their letter, the new mortuary may have never have gotten approval.
"It shows that pressure works and had it not been for the four consultant pathologists who went public on the poor state of the mortuary services and what was happening, I don't believe that the funding would have been released," he said.
"I think it is good news for people right across the south-east."
