Why do D DOCS HAVE A DRIVER?

cathy01

Why do D Docs have a driver?Im just wondering as it seems mad that they cant drive themselves?

RobFowl

It's fairly standard in all OOH co-op's.
Basically so the GP can write up notes between patients, take phone calls and also the drivers know the greater Dublin area better and are generally better trained drivers.
It also means the GP is not alone going into certain areas, and makes the whole house call system faster and more efficient.

cathy01

Thanks for that.I thought it was perhaps they didnt have a licence.:o
Cathy

Chiparus

Drivers Make up about 10% of the cost of a call out .
Each call out works out about 100 euro.
I believe driver costs nationally were about 30k per night nationally in 2008.

Dr Galen

Where are you getting those figures from Chiparus?

That would seem like an exceptionally high rate for both driver costs and call outs per night if that holds true

RobFowl

Chiparus's costings sound a bit high to me.

For GMS patients getting a house call at night the Doctors payment is €45 (this has to cover admin costs too, the Doctor is not paid this directly and will ultimately get a fraction of this (approx €30).
The driver costs vary for 15-25 euro an hour depending on where they work.
The call centre costs are now tendered out by the HSE to private companies and cost about €20 per call for answering and triaging the call.
Support.
So a GMS callout costs about 75-85 euro.

Dr Galen

I heard about that tender alright, seemed to cause quite a bit of consternation among the Co-Ops didn't it? I heard it was CareDoc that won, am i right?

RobFowl

Dr Galen wrote: »

I heard about that tender alright, seemed to cause quite a bit of consternation among the Co-Ops didn't it? I heard it was CareDoc that won, am i right?

Yep caredoc won it.

In their wisdom the HSE removed NEDOC's Doctor triage and were forced to use Caredoc's nurse triage.

The idea was to cut costs but the Nurse triage is actually more expensive per call than the existing triage done by local GP's in the North East.

The whole process and especially the HSE "review" of co-ops was appallingly badly handled and has left Co-Op's feeling hard done by and in some cases on the verge of viability.

Chiparus

I believe the costs of drivers was 10.7% of a total 107 million for 2008, there were slightly less than a million calls .
http://www.imn.ie/features/3046-risk-assessment-for-cvd-an-update-

RobFowl

Chiparus wrote: »

http://www.imn.ie/features/3046-risk-assessment-for-cvd-an-update-

That report has so many flaws and inaccuracies I personally would not rely on any thing in it.
I've had access to the full "review" and the figures and not referenced properly nor are any of the recommendations backed up by references or hard data.

It was written by 4 HSE employees none of whom have direct experience of working in General practice. The lead author no longer works for the HSE and the General practice "expert" used was a nurse who had no experience as a practice nurse but had a qualification in community child health.

TBH it's about as useful and accurate as the bank stress tests the central bank issued in 2008 which said AIB was well capitalised...