Community Connect - shared digital records for community services

Community Connect will provide a digital system for managing patient information in all community services.

Why Community Connect matters

Community services rely on paper or local systems. This can cause delays, duplication and frustration for staff and service users. Important information is not easy to share and it’s hard for staff to get a full picture of someone’s care.

Community Connect will help staff easily manage items such as referrals, appointments, documentation and caseloads all in one place, improving the health service experience for all.

For patients and service users, this means:

• care will be more consistent across services
• staff will have easier access to clear, up-to-date information
• there will be fewer delays in care

For staff, this means:

• safer, simpler workflows for everyday tasks such as appointments and referrals
• less time spent on paperwork or repeating tasks
• a clear, coordinated approach across services and regions

This digital system is an important step towards a national Electronic Health Record (EHR). An EHR will contain all patient health information in one secure, shared system.

Community Connect creates a strong foundation for this move to safer, more accessible care.

What we're working on now

Community Connect is currently in its discovery phase. This means that a dedicated team is researching the best ways to design and deliver the service.

Key activities in the discovery phase include:

• regional workshops with staff and HSE service users
• mapping clinical and administrative workflows
• development and testing of digital prototypes
• gathering feedback to support change and engagement

We will finalise the national Community Connect blueprint by the end of 2025.

The Community Connect project is overseen by a steering committee chaired by HSE Dublin and South East Regional Executive Officer Martina Queally, who is joined by programme managers from our technical and transformation team, as well as both service and clinical leads.

What’s next for Community Connect

See what's planned for Community Connect once the discovery phase ends.

Regional engagement workshops

Timeline: June-September 2025

Further workshops will take place across Ireland. In these workshops, staff will review digital prototypes and help guide the final design. These sessions will cover key tasks such as referrals, scheduling and waiting lists.

There are two types of workshops planned:

• Advanced clinical workshops, for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and Specialist Palliative Care.
• Service management workshops, for all other community health services.

Implementation and adoption

Timeline: 2026-2027

We plan to start rolling out Community Connect in early 2026. Full implementation is expected by the end of 2027.

Contact

For more information on our Community Connect initiative, email communityconnect@hse.ie.