A key responsibility of the HSE is implementing universal Healthcare in the Programme for Government and underpinned by the Sláintecare policy framework. This high-level strategic roadmap to deliver a universal single-tier health and social care system, where everyone has equitable access to services based on need and the focus is on continuous improvement of outcome and integration of services. Sláintecare signals a new direction for the delivery of health and social care services in Ireland with the potential to create a far more sustainable, equitable, cost-effective system and one that delivers better value for patients and service users. At its core, the strategy focuses on establishing programmes of work to move to a community-led model, providing local populations with access to a comprehensive range of services at every stage of their lives. This will enable our healthcare system to provide care closer to home for patients and service users, to be more responsive to needs and deliver better outcomes, with a strong focus on prevention and population health improvement.
Health Region Implementation
Central to the Sláintecare vision is the reorganisation of the HSE into six new health regions, in turn divided for operational purposes into a number of Integrated Health Areas, and a revised national structure which supports this model. The new regional structures will provide the organisational and aligned corporate and clinical governance arrangements to enable population-based planning, management, and delivery of integrated care for people within a region. These new arrangements aim to improve the health service's ability to deliver timely integrated care to patients and service users, care that is planned and funded in line with their needs at regional and local level.
The primary objective of this reform is to help deliver universal and integrated care for people, providing them with timely access to the care they need, when they need it. This will help to ensure that the needs of people are prioritised by promoting a culture that seeks to continuously improve the access to, and quality of, health and social care services. This will be achieved by refining processes and minimising structural barriers to integrated care thereby increasing productivity and the consistency, effectiveness, and efficiency of services.