What the HSE does


We are Ireland’s public health and social care service. Our goal is to provide quality care and support to people at all stages of life.

The services we offer include:

  • vaccines and screening
  • hospital care
  • community and primary care
  • supports for older adults and people with disabilities
  • mental health care and support
  • medical cards and other schemes

Over 150,000 people work in the HSE to help us to achieve our goal. These include nurses, midwives, doctors and other healthcare professionals. They include people working in environmental health, support services and managing our hospitals and community healthcare, staff in the National Ambulance Service and many more.

We're funded by the Governement Department of Health, and our Board reports to the Minister for Health.

Find out more about our CEO and Board

Our services are a mix of national services, seven hospital groups, and nine community health organisations around the country.

From March 2024, these will be organised into 6 health regions, who will each manage all integrated health services in their area.

Find out more about the health regions.

Our teams

From frontline healthcare services to human resources, all our specialist teams work to provide and improve healthcare services in Ireland.

Our teams' work includes:

  • providing high-quality health and social care to patients and service users
  • managing and delivering schemes and allowances, such as the medical card scheme and drugs payment scheme
  • planning and research in all areas including cancer, primary care, mental health, urgent and emergency care
  • improving services through reporting, assurance, transparency and accountability
  • ensuring that the HSE is a high standard employer
  • supporting staff
  • improving our use of technology and digital health services
  • working toward a more accessible and inclusive HSE
  • communicating with staff, patients, the public, partners and stakeholders

Our values

All our staff and work are guided by our values: care, compassion, trust and learning.

We're committed to being accessible and inclusive while providing a high-quality health service for everyone in Ireland.

HSE mission, vision and values


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