The Cabinet has approved a major shake-up of the structure of the Health Service Executive (HSE).
Its back to the future for health which will now see a split up into six regional health boards, as part of the implementation of SláinteCare.
The thrust is to give more power and autonomy to individuals in the health service at a local level.
At the moment, community healthcare and hospital care are delivered separately with separate budgets. The regions will be known as Areas A, B, C, D, E and F.
Image: © 2018 Health Service Executive
Paul Reid, HSE CEO, has welcomed the announcement by Health Minister Simon Harris.
“The agreement of the six new health regions is an important step in improving our health service, for everyone living in Ireland.
“We want people to be able to get the health services they need, as close to people’s homes as possible, with the majority of care delivered in the community and not in acute hospitals”, he says.
“The new health regions are an important step in enabling us to plan and provide better healthcare.
“By aligning our services geographically, it means health service staff can plan hospital and community services together, and this helps provide more integrated care at both regional and local level.”
The Government has published a Q&A document on the new plans here
