🇮🇪 Healthcare in Ireland: A Guide for New Arrivals

Ireland has a public health service (the HSE) alongside a large private sector. Unlike the UK, most people pay for everyday care - a Doctor visit is charged unless you hold a medical card or GP visit card, and there are set charges for emergency departments.

Hospital care itself is far less punishing than people fear: the daily in-patient charge was abolished in April 2023, so a public hospital stay no longer carries a per-night bill. The pinch points are getting onto a Doctor's list and waiting times for planned care.

Your first two jobs on arrival: get a PPS number, and find a practice taking new patients.

Public entitlement rests on being "ordinarily resident" - broadly, living in Ireland for at least a year, or arriving with a genuine intention to stay for that long. Nationality doesn't decide it; residence does.

There is no national registration system. You contact practices directly and ask whether they are accepting new patients - and in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick many lists are closed.

A medical card covers Doctor visits, most prescribed medicines (subject to a small per-item charge), public hospital care and some community services. A GP visit card covers Doctor consultations only.

• • Both are means-tested on weekly income after allowable expenses such as rent, childcare and travel to work.
• • Everyone aged 70 and over is assessed under a separate, more generous gross-income test.
• • Children under 8 get a GP visit card automatically, as do people receiving certain payments and carers.
• • Thresholds are reviewed in the Budget - check the HSE's online assessment tool for the figure that applies to your household rather than relying on a published number.

In much of Ireland, the honest answer to “how do I register with a Doctor?” is that the nearest practices are not taking new patients. This is common in Dublin, Cork, Galway and fast-growing commuter towns, and it is not a reflection on you. There is a fallback path.

• Widen the radius before you widen the effort. Practices two or three towns out often have capacity when the local ones do not, and you rarely need to attend in person for routine matters.
• Ask to be added to a waiting list in writing. Many practices keep one and never advertise it. Email beats a phone call because it leaves a record.
• If you hold a medical card or GP visit card and cannot find a participating Doctor who will take you, the HSE can assign you one - contact your local Community Healthcare Organisation and say plainly that you have been refused by local practices.
• Register the whole household at once. Practices that are closed to individuals will sometimes take a family, and it avoids splitting your records across two towns.
• Do not use the emergency department as a substitute. For anything that is not an emergency you will wait many hours and may be charged.

Medical card and GP visit card income thresholds are reviewed periodically and change with age and household circumstances - always check the current figures with the HSE before assuming you do or do not qualify.

• • Drugs Payment Scheme: register once, then no household pays more than €80 a month for approved prescribed medicines. There's no means test - everyone ordinarily resident can join.
• • Medical card holders pay €1.50 per item, capped at €22.50 per month per family.
• • Use one pharmacy for the whole family - the monthly cap is tracked per pharmacy.
• • Many everyday medicines sold over the counter elsewhere are pharmacy-only or prescription-only here; bring a Doctor's letter for anything you take regularly.

• • All children under 8 are entitled to free Doctor visits.
• • Childhood immunisations are free through the HSE schedule, and school-based programmes cover HPV and boosters.
• • The Maternity and Infant Care Scheme gives free maternity care - shared between your Doctor and a maternity hospital - to every woman ordinarily resident in Ireland, medical card or not. It also covers Doctor visits for the baby's first six weeks.

• • EU/EEA and Swiss visitors can use an EHIC for medically necessary care during a temporary stay, at public hospitals and Doctors who hold HSE contracts.
• • UK visitors are covered under the Common Travel Area arrangements and can also use a GHIC; UK citizens who move here are treated exactly as Irish residents once ordinarily resident.
• • Neither card covers private treatment, planned treatment or repatriation - you still need travel insurance.

• • Injury units handle broken bones, sprains and wounds much faster than an emergency department.
• • Out-of-hours co-ops cover evenings, weekends and bank holidays.
• • Save your nearest emergency department, injury unit and pharmacy in your phone in your first week.

Can't get onto a Doctor's list at all? Read our step-by-step guide: Can't find a GP in Ireland? What to do next.