The HSE is committed to changing how we invite people to participate in health and social care.
Our intention is to place people at the heart of our practices, our processes, our programmes, our policies, our systems, and our organisations.
We are committed to exploring how we involve them in co-design, co-decision-making, co-implementation, and co-evaluation.
We are focused on listening to the patient experience and partnering with those with this experience.
We are focused on building better, together.
Reimbursing expenses to patient and service user partners
Our reimbursement policy describes how we pay expenses to patient and service user partners who we involve in our work. It includes information about travel and subsistence rates, activities eligible for reimbursement, and the claim process.
National Policy on Reimbursement of Expenses for Patient and Service User Partners
The policy applies to:
- HSE staff working with patient and service user partners
- patient and service user partners working on agreed HSE events and activities
Read more about reimbursing expenses to patient and service user partners
National Patient and Service User Forum
Patients, families and healthcare providers collaborate in policy development, implementation and evaluation and design and delivery of services. For this collaboration to be meaningful and successful, it is essential that engagement with patients and service users takes place during the initial stages of planning and design of services and programmes.
Read more about the National Patient Forum
National Patient Representative Panel
The HSE is looking for volunteers to join our National Patient Representative Panel. We believe it’s essential that the views and experiences of people who have used health services in the past are at the heart of our design, planning and delivery of health services. One of the ways that people can get involved is to join our HSE National Patient Representative Panel.
Read more about the National Patient Representative Panel
National Care Experience Programme
The National Care Experience Programme, a joint initiative between the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), the Health Service Executive (HSE) and the Department of Health (DoH) asks people about their experiences of care in order to improve the quality of health and social care services in Ireland. The HSE’s Patient Service User Experience team works with HIQA and Department of Heath as partners on this work. Eligible participants periodically take part in surveys, findings are published and shared with policy makers, service providers and the public. The HSE uses the survey findings to improve healthcare services. Quality improvement plans are developed to address the issues raised by participants in the survey findings. You will find more information on yourexperience.ie.
National Maternity Experience Survey 2025
The second ever National Maternity Experience Survey commenced in February 2025, spanning all maternity services, to include five maternity hospitals, 14 maternity units, and the National Home Births Service.
The survey invites women who have recently given birth to share their experiences of Ireland’s maternity services, with the goal of improving the quality and safety of care provided to women and their babies.
This initiative, part of the National Care Experience Programme, is a collaboration between the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), the Health Service Executive (HSE), and the Department of Health.
The survey includes 64 questions covering every stage of the maternity journey: antenatal care, labour and birth, and postnatal care in the community.
Women aged 16 and over who give birth in February or March 2025 were invited to participate. Participants are receiving an invitation by text message to take the survey approximately three months after giving birth, between May and June 2025. They are provided with details about the survey and a link to complete it online. The survey closes on 18 July 2025.
The inaugural survey in 2020 saw over 3,200 women share their experiences, resulting in meaningful changes across maternity services.
All survey responses will be anonymised, analysed, and compiled into a national report detailing the quality of maternity care. The findings will guide improvements at both local and national levels. The final report will be published in late 2025 and made available to the public on yourexperience.ie.
Read more about the findings of the 2024 National Inpatient Experience Survey:
HSE Press Release Published: 10 December 2024
HSE welcomes findings of the 2024 National Inpatient Experience Survey
Find more information at Your Experience national results
Read more about the findings of the first National End of Life Survey:
HSE Press Release Published: 11 April 2024
HSE welcomes findings of the first National End of Life Survey and publishes HSE report in response to the findings
Read about the National Inpatient Experience Survey 2024
3rd National Patient and Public Partnership Conference
17 September 2025, Croke Park
Registration link will follow however there is a call for abstract submission, on our website at the moment https://www.hsepatientconference.ie/
We are delighted to announce the upcoming 3rd HSE National Public and Patient Partnership Conference, a key event that brings together health and social care professionals, patient / service user partners to celebrate and advance meaningful partnership in healthcare.
The theme of this year’s conference is ‘Navigating Our Patient Partnership Journey Together’.
Teamwork is key to the effective delivery of health and social care services regardless of whether it is in a community or Acute Care setting.
Meitheal – the Irish word for a work team or community helping each other to complete a task, is a helpful guide to navigating the approach our partnership journey.
Our aim is to create equal, meaningful and sustainable partnerships across our services.
This is the third year of the conference and there has been a lot of progress made on developing and establishing the patient voice 3rd HSE National Public and Patient Partnership Conference
‘Navigating our Partnership Journey Together’
This conference is an opportunity for us to reflect on how far we have come, to share our learning and experiences together, to build on what we have achieved to make ’The HSE Our HSE’ a reality.
For more information contact Cara Regan Downey.
Email pppconference@hse.ie
