Projections of regional demand and workforce requirements for general practice in Ireland, 2023–2024: Based on the Hippocrates model

In recent decades, the Irish healthcare system has undergone a number of structural and regional reconfigurations, the most recent of which was the implementation of six HSE health regions. This report is part of a new series of reports that uses the ESRI Hippocrates model to provide up-to-date projections for three service areas (public acute hospitals, general practice and older people’s services) at both the national and regional level. Focusing on general practice, this report extends the national-level analysis published in June 2025, by estimating regional baseline utilisation profiles for 2023, and providing medium-term projections of demand and workforce requirements to 2040 in each of the six HSE health regions. 

Similar to the national-level analysis, the analysis in this report was undertaken at a time of great uncertainty for the health system due to the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, high population growth and policy reforms, including the extension of eligibility for GP visit cards and the introduction of health regions. While available national-level data on general practice are limited, data availability at the health region level is even more limited. Consequently, the findings in this report should be interpreted with caution. It is anticipated that as the health regions become more embedded into the health system over time, better data will be available, allowing more refined analyses.