Many HSE employees are working from home with only essential healthcare staff travelling to work.
eHealth and Disruptive Technologies (eHealth) and Human Resources can support managers and their teams with working from home.
The national service desk is prioritising COVID-19 related queries. You can log your own support tickets at any time on the self-service portal. This method gives the fastest response time.
Setting up your workspace
Health and safety tips for setting up your work space at home
Data Protection
Employees are reminded of their responsibilities under data protection law, and that they are obliged to adhere to the HSE’s data protection policies and procedures which were put in place to ensure compliance with GDPR. Failure to comply with any of these policies and obligations may result in the removal of ICT privileges and disciplinary action.
See Data Protection and COVID-19
Advice for managers
As a manager, there are some steps you must take before your team is ready to work from home.
Assess your teams IT needs
Identify who from your team can work from home and the level of access they need to the HSE network. Prioritise team members who are doing essential work as part of the coronavirus response.
Order devices for your team
Your team may already have a mix of different devices depending on the level of access they need to do their job. After assessing who from your team can work from home, how they will do this, and the level of access they need, the next step is to order devices from eHealth.
Ordering laptops
If your team has never worked from home then they will need a laptop. HSE laptops are encrypted which means they are secure because they can only be accessed using a password.
If you need less than 5 laptops order here Covid -19 Device Request Online Form
If you need more than 5 laptops email TODeviceRequests@hse.ie. You will receive a form to complete about your team. Try and return this form as quickly as you can.
Ordering mobile devices
When your team are working from home they will need to connect to the HSE network. They may already have a laptop but they can't access the network without a mobile device.
To order a mobile device, contact your local regional mobile administrator.
Regional mobile administrators
East: mobile.queries@hse.ie
Midlands: NSD Self Service Portal
North West: Ictbizops.nw@hse.ie
South East: ictbizops.south@hse.ie
Midwest: NSD Self Service Portal
North East: mobiles.ne@hse.ie
South: ictbizops.south@hse.ie
South – Cork University Hospital: cuh.mcd@hse.ie
West: NSD Self Service Portal
Broadband at home
If a team member has broadband at home then ICT can arrange access for them without the need for a mobile device. This access is granted through a VPN account. eHealth will arrange this directly with the team member.
If you need more than 5 mobile devices, email bulkorders to ict.bizops.south@hse.ie. eHealth will deal with your request based on priority and device availability.
If you need less than 5 mobile devices, email your region.
Regional contacts
East: mobile.queries@hse.ie
Midlands: ictbizops.ml@hse.ie
South East: it.helpdesk@hse.ie
Midwest: ictbizops.mw@hse.ie
North East: mobiles.ne@hse.ie
North West: NWMobileOrders&Queries@hse.ie
South: ictbizops.south@hse.ie
South – Cork University Hospital: cuh.mcd@hse.ie
West: ishelpdesk@hse.ie
Advice for staff
Your manager will take steps to get you the equipment you need to work from home.
eHealth are procuring laptops to allow people to work from home and you will also need a mobile device to connect to the HSE network.
It may take time to get you the equipment you need. eHealth are trying to manage the large increase in device requests recently. They are prioritising frontline services at the moment and are making every effort to fast-track coronavirus related requests.
In the meantime, you can take some steps to prepare for working from home.
Reset your password
eHealth's National Service Desk cannot reset your password while you’re at home. So you must reset your password from the office network before you leave to work from home.
To reset your password
- hold down CTRL, ALT and Delete together
- Click on Change a password
Change your password to something that you will remember but that another person won't guess.
A strong password contains a mix of lower and uppercase letters, at least one number, and a symbol. Use a combination of words, for example, muckyboots and substitute some of the letters for numbers, symbols or capital letters, like this mUc&yBo0t5!.
Don't use the word 'Password', your address, date of birth or other information that someone could get from places like your social media accounts.
Once your password is reset you will not need to do this for 3 months.
Tidy up your mailbox
Your mailbox and sub-folders have to sync with the HSE email server several times a day to check for new emails and meeting requests. The larger your mailbox the longer this will take.
So it makes sense to clean up your mailbox and subfolders before you start to work from home.
Try not to use your inbox as a filing cabinet.
When working at home save documents to shared files
Because you are working from home it is important that you save your documents to your shared folder or drive. This will mean that these files are backed up each evening and kept secure.
Don't save files to your desktop, My Documents folder, or any folder you create locally on your laptop. Documents stored in these areas are not backed up.
Taking your PC home
In the event that eHealth can’t provide you with a laptop to work away from home. Then you will be given permission to take your work PC home.
Before you take your PC from the office you must take advise from eHealth on how to do this safely.
Making sure your PC is secure at home
To keep HSE data and information secure you will need to complete a number of important tasks before you get permission to take your work PC home.
Clear all personal and work files from your PC
Delete or save all of your personal and work files on your PC to a shared file on the HSE network or to a USB key.
Sign a Risk Assessment form for your PC
You will be asked to sign a Risk Assessment form to say that you take responsibility for the equipment and the safe storage of data and information in shared files whilst working from
Help and support
The national service desk is prioritising COVID-19 related queries. When you call the helpdesk press 1 and this will fast-track your call to an operator.
eHealth and Disruptive Technologies
Phone: 0818 300 300
If you are in the West, Midwest or North West region you can Log a call via NSD Self Service portal
Vodafone helpdesk
Phone: 1800 855 838
Demo videos
Dismantling your work PC
Setting up your PC at home
Connecting your HSE laptop to the HSE network using your mobile phone
Connecting your HSE laptop to the HSE network using a MiFi device