Work is progressing to establish 6 health regions from 1 March 2024. Health regions are a crucial step in delivering integrated care and improving health outcomes for everyone. They will manage health and social care services in their area.
The 6 Health Regions are:
- HSE Dublin and North East - North Dublin, Meath, Louth, Cavan**, and Monaghan
- HSE Dublin and Midlands - Longford, Westmeath, Offaly, Laois, Kildare, and parts of Dublin South and Wicklow*
- HSE Dublin and South East - Tipperary South, Waterford, Kilkenny, Carlow, Wexford, Wicklow, part of South Dublin
- HSE Mid West - Limerick, Tipperary and Clare
- HSE South West - Kerry and Cork
- HSE West and North West - Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim**, Roscommon, Mayo, and Galway
*West county Wicklow: West county Wicklow continues to be aligned with Kildare for health services
**West county Cavan: A small portion of west county Cavan continues to be aligned with Sligo/Leitrim for health services
HSE Centre
The review of the HSE centre has been issued by the CEO. The HSE Centre will remain the overarching governing unit of the HSE. Its only operational function will be through the CEO to the Regional Executive Officers (REOs) and the National Director of National Services (for some national services and schemes). The Centre will focus on supporting the regions with planning, enabling, performance and assurance functions.
More detailed work will be undertaken in early 2024 around transition planning to the new structure.
Organisational chart of HSE Centre new structure
Regional Executive Officers and Executive Management Team
We have now concluded the recruitment process for the 6 Regional Executive Officers (REOs). Sandra Broderick has been appointed as the Regional Executive Officer of the HSE Mid West health region, and started on the 18 December. The other five successful candidates will be announced shortly.
The REOs will be supported by a regional Executive Management Team (EMT) to be appointed during 2024. Progress has been made on the development of the Health Region EMT structure, we will keep you up-to-date on this when the details are finalised.
Progressing the Integrated Service Delivery Model
The design of an Integrated Service Delivery (ISD) Model for the health and social care system is central to the delivery of integrated care and to the implementation of the 6 health regions.
A comprehensive Integrated Service Delivery model for the health regions is being developed. The first step in this work is to define the most appropriate structure to deliver integrated care for local populations within the regions.
Integrated Healthcare Area (IHA)
As the six health regions will each serve their own large populations, a sub-structure within each region will be required and must be designed from the ground up. It is proposed that these sub–structures will be called Integrated Health Areas. They will serve a population of up to 300,000, will take account of varying geographies, population size, local needs, and services.
The focus of the IHA will be on the health of the population across the range of care we provide, from living well at home to inpatient care. It is a geographic, population based model, which will build on the established Community Healthcare Network structure.
Work has been progressed since May on the development of the Integrated Healthcare Area structure including:
- The co-design of a set of structural options for Integrated Healthcare Areas with stakeholders from across health and social care services including patients/service users, academics, healthcare staff and managers, and policymakers
- Consultation and assessment of options using a multi-criteria analysis with stakeholders
- Recommendation on the IHA structure to the Health Regions Programme Governance Team for approval to proceed to detailed design
- Drafting of IHA mapping options for each of the 6 health regions by a working group including HSE Health Intelligence and Primary Care Strategy and the Department of Health
The next steps are:
- Approval and sign off of recommended IHA structure by HSE and DoH governance
- Detailed design of the IHA structure in consultation with stakeholders
- Ongoing development of IHA maps in consultation with stakeholders
Visual identity
HSE, CHO and Hospital Group Communications teams are working on developing a visual identity policy for health regions.
This work will involve updating the HSE’s visual identity and developing a visual identity policy for health regions, including materials and templates to be used by our teams nationwide from 1 March 2024 onward.
Next steps
By 1 March 2024, based on the Health Regions Implementation Plan, we aim to have:
- Realigned geographical and operational boundaries of the existing 9 CHOs and 6 Hospital Groups consistent with the agreed Health Region boundaries
- HSE Centre, Health Region EMT and Integrated Healthcare Area structures agreed.
- Health Region headquarters agreed
- Population health profiles completed for each region
- Six REOs will be in post and fully accountable for the services and associated resources within their respective regions
- CHO and HG management teams will support and report to the REOs in early 2024 while the Health Region Executive Management Teams (EMTs) are being appointed
By the end of 2024 we aim to have:
- Existing Hospital Group and CHO structures stood down as the new Health Region arrangements are established (timeline end September 2024)
- Performance accountability arrangements and delegation orders defined and implemented
- Arrangements and EMTs to support the newly established Health Regions in place (e.g. ICT, REO support staff)
- Progressed with voluntary organisations and non-HSE providers alignment with wider health and social care services to Health Regions
We will keep you up-to-date on the implementation of health regions over coming months.
Useful Information
If you have a question about any of the information on this page or would like more information about the health region implementation programme, Email: healthregions.team@hse.ie