Ireland’s Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, has shared the impact of virtual care initiatives, highlighting “significant progress” around patient outcomes and relieving pressure on hospital capacity.
Two pilot acute virtual wards at St. Vincent’s University Hospital and University Hospital Limerick have accrued 1,500 admissions, reportedly equating to 13,800 virtual bed days. A further four virtual wards have now been launched at Our Lady of Lourdes Drogheda, Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore, Mercy Hospital Cork, and St Luke’s Hospital Kilkenny; with plans for a fifth at Galway University Hospital in early 2026.
A virtual ward at Letterkenny has produced similar “remarkable” results, according to the Minister, producing an 18 percent reduction in acute admissions to the hospital in 2025. Along with virtual care for acute patients, the Minister notes that virtual wards have also been established for community, with plans to expand all types of virtual ward models nationwide.
Reflecting on the “wonderful success story” of Ireland’s virtual wards journey to date, MacNeill said: “These innovative models are not only improving patient outcomes and supporting recovery at home but also helping to alleviate pressure on our hospitals. I commend the dedication of healthcare professionals and local teams who are making this transformation possible and remain committed to ensuring that all regions benefit from such advancements in care.”
Wider trend: Digital transformation in Ireland
The Health Service Executive Health App was launched in Ireland earlier this year, offering patients a “digital front door” to health services. The public launch was welcomed by the Minister for Health as “an exciting milestone” in the journey to digitise patient health records and to “make it easier for everyone to navigate the health service”.
The Government of Ireland has shared its Community Pharmacy Agreement 2025, outlining digital priorities across pharmacy IT integration, e-prescribing, data sharing, and vendor engagement, with a view to ensuring “community pharmacists are better equipped to contribute to national health priorities”. Pharmacy IT systems should be ready to integrate with core national digital assets such as the national shared care record and e-prescribing service, the government notes, as “the success depends on pharmacy’s ability to connect securely, share data in structured and coded formats, and do so in real time”.It states its Health Information Act will establish a legal framework to make pharmacy data part of a patient’s longitudinal health record.
HSE published a national policy defining data field standards, said to provide best practice guidelines for patient facing staff on accurate patient registration and data recording, supporting the successful matching of each patient to their unique Individual Health Identifier. The specifications will apply to all new system procurements, and support existing training and education around standardisation, accuracy, and completeness of patient data, the service notes.
