The health service will receive a record €27.4 billion next year, Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers announced in today’s budget.
He said this would fund an extra 220 acute hospital beds and an additional 3,300 staff in the health service.
Mr Chambers said there would have to be a greater focus on productivity, efficiency and better financial governance if the value of the additional resources allocated to the health sector was to be realised.
He said that in parallel with the additional €1.5 billion allocation in 2026, there would be a programme of reforms including “the extension of health services to evenings and weekends, and a reduction in dependency on agency staffing”.
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Under Government plans, there will be an increased focus in 2026 on maximising both the productivity and value for money from the new public patient-only hospital consultant contract and new roster arrangements which will lead to many staff working on any five out of seven days.
Mr Chambers said an additional 280 community beds would be provided while there would also be a continued investment in the community nursing units refurbishment programme and reductions in community waiting lists.
He said there would also be an additional 1.7 million home support hours next year and 500 more nursing home places.
Overall, the number of staff in the health service will increase to more than 136,000 whole-time equivalent personnel next year – a rise of 2.5 per cent.
Mr Chambers said there would also be increased staffing and an expansion of mental health services.
This will include suicide prevention, increased access to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and Traveller mental health initiatives.
It is understood an additional 300 staff will be funded for mental health services with a particular focus on crisis support and suicide reduction.
It is expected that 100 clinicians will be recruited to support people in mental health crisis with new specialist nursing teams to be placed in emergency departments in larger hospitals outside of regular working hours.
There are also plans to establish three new crisis resolution teams next year, including drop-in crisis cafes.
Mr Chambers said enhanced community and primary care services would be put in place including the roll-out of the new pharmacy contract.
He said there would also be investment in digital health including the HSE Health App, National Share Care Record and virtual wards which support patients who would otherwise be in hospital to receive the acute care, monitoring and treatment they need in their own homes.
There will also be a focus next year on trying to avoid the need for patients to be admitted to hospitals including funding to run another respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccination catch-up programme which aims to reduce severe illness for young children as a result of the condition.
There will also be a €100 million increase in the health service capital budget for 2026, bringing it to €1.56 billion.
Capital funding next year will support moving towards the digitalisation of healthcare records and the construction of the new National Maternity Hospital on the St Vincent’s campus at Elm Park in Dublin.
It will also fund planned surgical hubs in north Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick, Sligo and Letterkenny.
As part of investment in services for older people, there will be “continued investment in the community nursing units (CNU) refurbishment programme to ensure that existing units meet Hiqa requirements at locations across the country”.
They include a 30-bed CNU at Buncrana, Donegal; a 50-bed CNU at Sacred Heart Hospital, Roscommon, and a 90-bed CNU at Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim.
