Hettie is the AI voice behind after-hours phone cover for home care agencies in the HSE South West region: it answers your line every night, in your agency's name, and passes anything urgent to your on-call team at once.
Youghal, a seaside town in east Cork, on the Blackwater estuary, recorded 8,564 residents at the last census. 17.8% of them, 1,522 people, were 65 or older. 27.4% of people living here have a disability and 6.1% are carers, according to Census 2022 (2,350 and 525 people). In County Cork, 89,461 people are 65 or over, 15.3% of the county, and growth in that age group ranks 18th of the 26 counties. Of the over-65s in private households in County Cork, 21,979 live on their own. That is 26.0% and in line with the national 25.9%.
In HSE terms the town is part of HSE South West and the Cork North and East Integrated Health Area. Two HSE home support offices cover the area: Cork (South Lee and West Cork) and Cork (North Cork and North Lee). When a client needs a doctor overnight, the co-op to call is SouthDoc. On the October 2026 lists, County Cork shows 29 provider offices and 25 distinct names. Bluebird Care has an office in the town, with Dovida, Caremark, Comfort Keepers and Right at Home also on the list for the county. In a smaller coastal town the agency's number is often the one a family keeps on the fridge, and answering it every night helps keep that trust.
The HSE lists Cork University Hospital as the acute hospital for the area. Palliative care in the area is provided by Marymount University Hospital & Hospice. Dungarvan is 22 km away in a straight line, so an agency may run one rota for both. Hettie does not need a site visit. The agency sends a client list and the on-call rota, and the line is ready to forward. Some callers in County Cork may prefer Irish, especially around Múscraí and Oileán Chléire. Mention it when you talk to us about the service.
Sources: CSO Census 2022, towns by age; CSO, age by county and city (FY006B); CSO, over-65s living alone (FY010B); HSE health regions; HSE hospital list; HSE home support listing, Cork (South Lee and West Cork); Palliative care listing: Marymount University Hospital & Hospice; Out-of-hours GP co-op: SouthDoc; provider counts from HSE: choosing an approved provider; HCCI Find Care Near Me (Hettie research, 14 to 15 October 2026, not an official register; the providers named have no relationship with Hettie). Checked 16 October 2026.
Five modules across the care journey. Start with the after-hours line and add the rest when you are ready.
Every call to your office answered in your agency's name, in office hours and after them. Urgent and emergency calls reach a person at minute 0; everything else is in your morning summary. Your on-call nurse hears only the calls that need them.
€2 per active patient per month; up to 50 patients for €99 a month
Read more about After-hours CoverageGet the client, the family and your care team ready for a good first visit: start date, first carer and access notes confirmed before anyone knocks on the door.
Included in the During care package, €2 per active patient per month for all three, with 3 completed calls per patient included
Read more about Welcome CallsRegular check-ins with everyone on your books, never more than twice a week, in the language of the HIQA National Standards for Home Support. You hear about unhappiness while there is still time to put it right.
Included in the During care package
Read more about Patient SatisfactionHettie confirms tomorrow's visits and passes timing on in both directions, so clients are not left wondering when their carer will arrive, whether the round stays in town or runs out towards Dungarvan.
Included in the During care package
Read more about Visit CoordinationFor weeks after a package ends or a hospital stay, Hettie keeps in touch and hears when things start to slip. For clients coming home from Cork University Hospital, that is the call that catches a problem in the first days.
€3 per active patient per month, 8 completed calls per patient included
Read more about Post-Discharge Follow-upNo setup fee, no contract, and a €99 Starter for agencies with up to 50 active patients. Full terms on the pricing page. Hospices have their own page: Hettie for hospices.
people aged 65 and over in County Cork at Census 2022, up 21.2% on 2016
home care provider offices in County Cork on Hettie's October 2026 list, from 25 names
people receiving HSE home support at the end of 2025
Also nationally: 5,286 people assessed for home support and waiting for a carer in May 2026, and 22% growth in people aged 65 and over between 2016 and 2022. Sources: HSE reply to PQ 5691/26, 6 Feb 2026; HSE reply to PQ 54735/26, 24 Jul 2026; CSO Census 2022, Population Changes; county figure calculated from CSO Census 2022, table FY006B; provider count from HSE: choosing an approved provider; HCCI Find Care Near Me.
Agencies rarely stop at the town boundary. These pages cover the nearest settlements, with the local figures for each.
Across County Cork: Cork, Carrigaline, Cobh, Midleton, Mallow, Bandon, Fermoy, Passage West, Kinsale, Carrigtwohill and Clonakilty. See the County Cork page for the county figures, the HSE offices and the providers.
Hettie works for the provider. The HSE office is the one that approves and commissions home support hours; your agency delivers them. The HSE home support offices that serve the area are Cork (South Lee and West Cork) (St Finbarr's Hospital, Douglas Road, Cork T12 XH60, telephone 021 492 3864); Cork (North Cork and North Lee) (Mallow Primary Care Centre, Goulds Hill, Mallow, telephone 022 587 49). Hettie does not take referrals from the office or change what it commissions. It answers your line out of hours, makes welcome and satisfaction calls to your clients, and writes up every call so you have a record to show the HSE or HIQA.
None directly: Hettie is not connected to hospital systems. Post-discharge calls go to your own clients, from the list you give it. The acute hospitals nearest the area on the HSE list are Cork University Hospital, so those are the discharges an agency here is most likely to see. When a client comes home from one of them, you add them to the Post-Discharge Follow-up programme (€3 per active patient per month), and Hettie rings in the days that follow and flags to your coordinator anything that has slipped.
Hettie answers first, in your agency's name, and says it is an automated assistant. Four escalation levels decide what happens next. Information and attention go into your morning summary. Urgent and emergency reach a person at minute 0: an urgent call is transferred live to your on-call nurse or manager, and for an emergency Hettie tells the caller to ring 112 or 999 and alerts your on-call team at the same time. The person who picks up is someone on your own rota. SouthDoc is the out-of-hours GP service for the area if the caller needs a doctor, and Hettie does not give medical advice.
Hettie's Care Centre is designed to go live in 24 hours once the data processing agreement is signed. You hold a kick-off call about branches, on-call rota and what counts as urgent, send a spreadsheet of clients and numbers, run test calls with your team, then forward your after-hours line. There is no setup fee and no integration is needed to start. Early access is open to providers in Ireland, so ask about the pilot when you request a demo.
Client details, transcripts and call write-ups are stored and processed in the European Union. Health data is special category data under Article 9 of the GDPR, and Hettie acts as your processor under a signed data processing agreement. We say the EU because that is what we can state today. Ask us about the hosting location when you request a demo.
A short chat about how your service runs, and a walk through what Hettie would have picked up from your clients last week.
Request a demoFor home care providers and hospices in Ireland. Early access is open.
Hettie asks one question to clarify and no more. The nurse on call decides what happens next. The 112 and 999 line is fixed safety wording your agency approves.
I had a bit of a fall in the bathroom last night... My hip is a bit sore.
Good morning. Here's what happened since the office closed.
Answered by Hettie: 6 questions about visit times, 3 "is my carer still coming", 2 messages for the office. See all calls
Every call is transcribed and written up. Recordings are kept only where the client has consented and your service has turned recording on.
Example. Fictional agency and people.