Regional health boards are to return under new reforms to be unveiled at Cabinet on Wednesday.
Minister for Health, Simon Harris, is expected to bring the rehashing of the old model before his ministerial colleagues at the weekly Cabinet meeting this week.
The new reconfiguration of our national health service is expected to consist of six new regional bodies that will oversee the services in their areas.
There are already six hospital groups around the country, so the new set-up should follow these structures generally.
And there are also another nine Community Health Organisations (CHOs) that manage services outside of a hospital, services such as social care or mental health.
The whole reorganisation will be similar to the old model that saw 11 regional health boards around the country before the new fancier (Health Service Executive) HSE was established in 2005.
This new body was supposed to be a radical new vision for the health service, with the associated centralisation of activities designed to increase efficiency and drive value for money for patients and the State.
But this never happened, with much of the HSE being hoisted down on top of existing structures in the health boards, leading to duplication instead of boosted efficiency.
The resulting mammoth has proved unwieldy and with the HSE budget now at its highest ever, heading towards €17billion, there have been massive calls for reform.
This is why Mr Harris will be looking for Cabinet approval - which he is expected to get - for the overhaul of the HSE tomorrow.
The majority opinion across Government is that the HSE has now become too big, and that it is too bureaucratic.
The HSE will become smaller under the new plan, with the health boards in time taking on more responsibilities.
