HSE publishes 2025 Annual Report: Your Health, Our Mission Shaping Care Together

The HSE has today, 16 July 2026, published its 2025 Annual Report and Financial Statements, reflecting on the year’s progress, achievements, and ongoing challenges in Ireland’s health and social care service.

Commenting on the 2025 Annual Report, Ciarán Devane, HSE Board Chairman, said: “Over the past year we have focused our efforts on improving efficiency, strengthening productivity, and building further on quality improvements achieved in recent years. We also continued to strengthen our financial control environment, ending the year within our pre-agreed cash allocation. The move to six Health Regions and 20 Integrated Health Areas represents a significant governance shift, laying the groundwork for more coordinated, accessible and integrated population care for patients and families while at the same time increasing the focus on productivity and financial control.”

Anne O’Connor, HSE CEO, added: “While great progress has been made in 2025, we also recognise that there is more to do as we continue strengthening services, modernising how care is delivered, and building the capacity required to meet the evolving needs of people and communities across Ireland. A major milestone, as set out in Sláintecare, was the full establishment of the six Health Regions and 20 Integrated Health Areas in 2025, a transformative step that enables care to be planned and delivered around the needs of local populations.”

“It is important to note that Ireland’s growing and ageing population continued to drive demand in 2025 with more people requiring hospital care, community supports and chronic disease management, particularly among older adults who access services more frequently and with increasingly complex needs. Access to health and social care remains fundamental for the people who rely on our services, and it continues to be one of the most significant challenges we face as a health system.”

2025 highlights

Healthy Communities

• Delivering an Age-Friendly Health System – A Blueprint to Transform Health and Healthcare for Older Adults was published in December, to support longer lives through integrated, person-centred, high-quality care
• Almost 5,500 new users availed of social prescribing services, connecting people to community supports
• The National Framework for the Management of Endometriosis launched in October, Ireland’s first defined clinical care pathway for women and girls living with endometriosis
• Expected activity levels exceeded in CervicalCheck (18%), BowelScreen (27%) and Diabetic RetinaScreen (23%)

Right Care

• An additional 2,700 new Outpatient Department (OPD) appointments delivered through implementation of the OPD planning tool in four hospitals (an additional 103,000 new OPD attendances are expected yearly once fully rolled out)
• Cancer Genetic Testing Pathways introduced, improving patient access to hereditary cancer genetic testing
• First of six regional Patient and Service User Partnership Councils established, strengthening engagement with patients, service users, families, carers and local communities
• The first National Policy Framework for Adult Safeguarding in the Health and Social Care Sector launched in December, strengthening protection for adults at risk

Right Place

• 121,874 referrals received by community intervention teams in 2025, providing acute, short-term care in the community
• 25.5m home support hours provided to 60,463 older people. Over 300 day centres operated, supporting over 15,500 older people
• 8,911 residential places for people with disability in partnership with 90 disability service providers (2.5% above expected activity)
• 60,870 patients treated through alternative care pathways to divert from emergency department (ED) (16.3% increase on 2024)
• Injury Units saw 228,000 people (a 7.8% increase on 2024)
• The first of six new surgical hubs opened in February with over 3,700 procedures undertaken by year end, resulting in a 74% reduction in patients waiting over 12 months for a day case procedure at St James’s Hospital

Right Time

• The Primary Care Wait List reduced by 10,000 patients nationally (5% decrease)
• 93 Children’s Disability Network Teams (CDNTs) provided services to almost 45,000 children (6% increase on 2024), with the CDNT waiting list reducing from 12,920 children to 9,363 (27%)
• 20,621 people with a disability received day services 
• The Action Plan for child and youth mental health reform, published in February 2025, outlined 16 key actions for system change over the next three years

Strong Foundations

• Our People Strategy 2025-2027, published in July, sets out our plan to attract, develop, support, and retain our workforce
• Three major releases of the HSE Health App launched with over 121,000 users registered by year end, providing people aged 16 and over easy digital access to their personal health information