Local Euro election candidate calls on Minister to resign over ‘dead bodies on trolleys’ scandal

A LOCAL European election candidate has called on Health Minister Simon Harris to resign over shocking revelations that dead bodies were left to decompose on trolleys at the regional hospital for the South East.

The horrific conditions at the mortuary in University Hospital Waterford (UHW) emerged this week in a letter signed by four consultant pathologists to Health Service Executive (HSE) chiefs.

The letter was sent by Prof Rob Landers, Dr Fergus MacSweeney, Dr Nigam Shah and Dr Christine Shilling to Gerry O’Dwyer, chief executive of the South–South West Hospital Group in Cork last October.

It detailed how the mortuary at UHW lacks sufficient refrigeration and that the situation is so serious that some bodies simply decompose, causing “almost unspeakable” distress to families.

However despite its stark findings, the letter was not acted upon.

Local European election candidate Adrienne Wallace (pictured below) described the revelations as “a scandal too far” and called for Minister Harris to step down.

The People Before Profit candidate, who has campaigned for 24/7 cardio services for the South East, said: “Our health crisis has spiralled. Not only do they gamble with our lives every day, but we are now denied dignity in death.”

She added: “Health equality should be a basic human right, but instead we have waiting lists for waiting lists, the outsourcing and privatization of women’s health care that led to the cervical smear scandal and a mortuary that poses an environmental and health risk, because of the danger of infection spreading and the circulation of unfiltered air.

“This is one scandal too many, it is time for Simon Harris to go. We need a new politics, one that puts people before profit and invests in our public health care system.”