HSE publishes 2026 National Service Plan

The HSE has published its National Service Plan 2026. The plan sets out the delivery of a range of health and social care services that will be provided “within the budget of €29 billion”. This includes a €3.8 billion investment for disability services, a 20 per cent increase on 2025.

According to the HSE, highlights include:

• 428 community beds and 177 acute beds will be delivered
• Five new surgical hubs will be operational
• National Children’s Hospital Ireland will be completed
• Single point of access to disability, mental health and primary care services will be provided for children to improve timely access to the right care
• Expansion of core disability services including residential supports – delivering 199 residential placements, 58 de-congregation transitions, and 45 transitions from nursing homes for people under 65
• Greater access with more services available in the evenings and on weekends
• The Maternity and Newborn Electronic Health Record system will be deployed in four of the remaining 13 maternity units
• The Shared Care Record will be implemented in the Dublin South East region and implementation will commence in two other regions.

Speaking about the HSE’s priorities for 2026, Mr Ciarán Devane, HSE Chairperson, said: “The 2026 plan represents a continuation of our reform journey towards a health and social care system that is accessible, supportive, sustainable, and responsive to the needs of all. Ireland’s population now exceeds 5.3 million. Life expectancy continues to rise, projected at 82.7 years overall in 2025, placing us among the highest in Europe. Continuing improvement in life expectancy and in healthy life years remains an important goal now and for the long term.

“Our priority for 2026 is to improve access to care by making significant improvements to waiting times for both emergency and scheduled care. Part of this will be expanding and strengthening health and social care capacity to meet the increasingly complex needs of a growing, ageing, and diverse population. More, however, will be using our existing resources to best effect, innovating our processes to ensure our colleagues are supported to have the time and resources to continue to deliver great care.”

Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said: “The Government’s priority for 2026 is to improve healthcare access and quality across all health regions. This will be achieved through targeted investment that supports the shift to community-based care, reduces hospital overcrowding, and delivers services closer to home. Investment will be directed where it delivers the greatest impact for patients and return for taxpayers on the State’s sustained healthcare funding over the past decade.

“Over the past decade, targeted investment has resulted in faster diagnosis, improved outcomes, increases in activity and clearer care pathways for patients. But we still have work to do to make these improvements consistent. In some areas, patients are seen quickly; in others, access is slower. Meanwhile, services such as community therapies face severe backlogs, even in health regions that perform well in other areas. Our goal is that wherever you live in Ireland, you should have timely access to high-quality care.””

Mr Bernard Gloster, HSE CEO, said: “We enter 2026 with the foundations of organisational reform in place and a clear Government mandate to accelerate improvements in service delivery for the people we serve. The establishment of six health regions under Sláintecare and 20 integrated health areas, marks a critical step towards planning and delivering services around the specific needs of local populations leading to better co-ordination of care and improved access to services. This transition to population-focused funding aligns resources with need and empowers health regions to deliver integrated, responsive care, with the ultimate goal of achieving better health outcomes. 2026 is the first year and first major step towards the type of resource allocation and the pathway set by the Minister is clear – we must look at all resources existing and new together to achieve the priorities for the people.

“In addition, the expansion of community-based care and progress in digital transformation have marked important steps in our progress to date. We continue to work to enhance hospital services, improving patient flow, efficiency and capacity, and introducing new models of care to support timely treatment and better outcomes. The goal of right care, right place, right time can be our only real target as we balance the critical success factors of access, safety and outcome.”

The HSE National Service Plan 2026 is available here: https://about.hse.ie/publications/hse-national-service-plan-2026/