🇮🇪 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.

• • 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.