Government approves HSE Health Regions Implementation Plan
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From: Department of Health
- Published on: 31 July 2023
- Last updated on: 16 April 2025
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has announced Cabinet approval for the Health Service Executive (HSE) Health Regions Implementation Plan.
The coordination and delivery of health and social care services along regional lines aims to facilitate more integrated care for patients and those who use our services across the country. It also aims to enable a coherent population-based approach to service planning and delivery, where care is planned and funded in line with people’s needs at regional and local level.
Health Regions will commence operation from February 2024, and further reforms and devolution of authority will take place on a phased basis through 2024 and 2025. The HSE Health Regions Implementation Plan clarifies objectives, critical actions, and timelines to progress implementation that have stakeholder buy-in and ownership.
A first step in the transition to Health Regions is the appointment of Regional Executive Officers (REOs). Each REO will be the accountable officer at Health Region level, responsible for the delivery of high-quality, safe, and accessible services for the population of their region. Sanction to proceed with the recruitment of these senior leadership posts has now been approved. The posts are to be advertised within weeks, with salaries linked to the pay under the new public only hospital consultant contract – up to €257,000.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said:
"This document sets out the pathway and key actions to bring these six new Health Regions to life in the immediate months ahead. This delivers on a Programme for Government priority. The HSE Health Regions Implementation Plan has been developed in partnership with health and social care stakeholders from across the sector, and aims to improve our service’s ability to deliver more joined-up care to people when they need it.
“While the transition to Health Regions represents a considerable change to organisational structures, it is important to note that structural change is not the primary objective of this reform. These new arrangements aim to improve the health service’s ability to deliver timely, integrated care to patients and service users, planned and funded in line with their needs."
Bernard Gloster, Chief Executive Officer of the Health Service Executive (HSE) and Co-Chair of the Sláintecare Programme Board, said:
"These changes aim to ensure that when we give health services to our citizens that we do it in a joined-up way via GPs, community services, nursing support, social care services and acute hospitals as needed. The idea behind reorganising our structures is to ensure that people experience just one health service, providing whatever care they need at the right time and in the right place. When we talk about ‘integrated care’, this is what we mean. In line with the introduction of health regions, I am currently finalising plans for a changed HSE centre and this will add to the overall improvement in governance and leadership of the health service."
Notes
HSE Health Regions were formerly known as Regional Health Areas.
The implementation of HSE Health Regions involves the internal reorganisation of HSE into six operational regions.
Each Health Region will have responsibility for the planning and coordinated delivery of joined-up health and social care services within their respective defined geographies as part of an integrated structure.
These arrangements aim to improve the health service’s ability to deliver timely, integrated care to patients and service users, care that is planned and funded in line with their needs at regional and local level.
The transition to six HSE Health Regions is considered a key enabler for the wider introduction of universal healthcare and Sláintecare.
Ongoing engagements have continued to inform both the system design and the Health Regions implementation approach with over 2,000 stakeholders engaged since January 2023.
Each Regional Executive Officer (REO) will be the accountable officer at Health Region level, responsible for the delivery of high-quality, safe, and accessible services for the population of their region. REOs will report directly to the HSE CEO on the operation and management of the Health Regions. REOs will form part of the core HSE Senior Leadership Team, providing regional input into the development of national policies and standards.
Existing Hospital Groups and Community Healthcare Organisations (CHOs) are already meeting in regional pods that are reflective of the Health Region structures. The associated interim HSE senior leadership arrangements have also been stood up.
CHO and Hospital Group management teams will support and report to REOs in early 2024 while the Health Region senior executive teams are being appointed. By the end of 2024, existing Hospital Group and CHO structures will be stood down as new Health Region arrangements are embedded.
One of the core objectives of this reform is to realign the incentives and drivers present within our health and social care system so that it is directed more towards providing care for people closer to home and keeping people healthy and well.
This approach is in line with the government’s commitment to universal healthcare as well as recommendations made in the Oireachtas Committee on the Future of Healthcare Sláintecare Report.