The Health Service Executive (HSE) is responsible for providing Health and Personal Social Services for everyone living in the Republic of Ireland. The HSE provides thousands of different services in hospitals and communities across the country.  

These services range from public health nurses treating older people in the community to caring for children with challenging behaviour; from educating people how to live healthier lives to performing highly-complex brain surgery; from planning for major emergencies to controlling the spread of infectious diseases. At some stage every year, everybody in Ireland will use one or more of the services provided. They are of vital importance to the entire population.

The HSE is the largest employer in the state, with over 100,000 employees. More than 67,000 are direct employees, the remainder are employed by agencies funded by the HSE. The HSE aims to be an Employer of Choice, and offers a wide range of challenging career opportunities that enable our staff to make an important contribution to the health services, to public service and to the lives of everyone living in Ireland.

The HSE is divided into various functions listed below:

• Integrated Services Directorate (Hospital and Community Public Health Services) 
• National Cancer Control Programme
• Quality & Patient Safety Directorate
• Corporate Planning and Corporate Performance
• Finance
• Human Resources
• Communications
• Commercial and Support Services (Estates, Legal, Procurement, Contracts, & ICT)

Integrated Services Directorate

The Integrated Services Directorate manages all hospital and community public health services in Ireland.  The former National Hospitals Office  and Primary and Continuing Community Care Directorates have come together as one Integrated Services Directorate.

This has been done to to make it easier for patients and clients to get access to all the health and social care they need without delay or inconvenience.  The aim is to make sure our services, acute hospital, long stay care, GP, mental health, child care, emergency, rehabilitation, social work care and so on, are connected and the staff who provide them are working well together in teams.   

National Cancer Control Programme

This programme was set up in 2007 to provide a comprehensive programme of cancer control in Ireland, that would transform how cancer care is delivered, and ensure that cancer services meet the highest standards.

Quality and Patient Safety Directorate

The Quality and Patient Safety Directorate has been established to ensure high quality safe services are designed and delivered to patients and clients. The directorate is committed to a multi-agency approach being taken under the auspices of the Patient Safety First initiative to ensure high-quality care is available to all patients and clients.

The directorate is focused on the development and implementation of safe quality healthcare.

Corporate Planning and Corporate Performance

The Corporate Planning and Corporate Performance Directorate (CPCP) is responsible for the implementation of a comprehensive integrated cross system planning function, a business intelligence unit and operational performance reporting and measurement.

Planning is part of the process of management, essential to identifying needs, setting specific goals, developing objectives and mapping how these objectives will be accomplished.  Performance monitoring is an essential part of the planning cycle. It enables us to review progress against what we set out to achieve and sets the baseline for developing our corporate and annual plans'

Finance

The National Finance Directorate has responsibility for the management of the health system's budget and cash management system. This involves moving from a number of different financial systems to an integrated model, which will occur over time. It also provides strategic financial and management support to the Board and the National Directors.

Human Resources

The key role of HR is to ensure that the HSE has the right number of people, with the right skills, in the right place, and at the right time. This involves managing staff turnover. It also requires focusing on staff training and paying particular attention to recruiting specialist disciplines.

Communications

The HSE Communications Directorate is responsible for developing and managing the HSE’s internal and public communications initiatives and provides consultancy advice and support to staff across the organisation.

It also includes the Parliamentary Affairs Division, which manages respones to parliamentary questions and information for public representatives, and is responsible for Freedom of Information and Data Protection.

Commercial and Support Services

• Information & Communication Technology (ICT)
  ICT provides essential support for all administrative and support services and, increasingly, patient care delivery. It embraces all voice, video and data communications technologies and provides one central management point for all purchases of hardware, software, telecommunications, ICT development and advisory services.

• Procurement
  HSE is the largest purchaser in the state and spends approximately €4.5bn annually across a wide range of products and services to facilitate the provision of a Health Service to a population of 4 million people.  The Procurement is responsible for all of the activities involved between the identification of a requirement for goods or services, right through to their acquisition and in some instances their eventual disposal.
  
• Contracts
  The National Contracts Office has responsibility for developing appropriate contractual arrangements with independent contractors.  At present in excess of 5600 independent professionals are contracted by the HSE to provide services to the eligible population.  These Contractors include General Practitioners, General Dental Practitioners, Pharmacists and Optometrists/ Ophthalmologists. 
  
• Estates
  Estates Management manages the organisation's €10 billion capital intrastructure and annual capital plan.

• Legal Services
  The Office of Legal Services was established in March, 2010 pursuant to the HSE’s commitment to transform the delivery and management of legal services to the HSE. The focus of this Office is to safeguard the needs and interests of all those who use the services of the HSE, those who work with the HSE, and those who work for the HSE.