deregulating GP's

nino1

its about time GP's were deregulated.
maybe if they had not taken advantage of the situation by charging crazy fees it would not have come to this.
of course all the doctors and doctors unions are trying to protect their patch and giving all the reasons why it is not a good idea.

it will be great to see a doctor set up beside the doctors charging €70 and forcing them to reduce their price.

what are your thoughts?

RobFowl

By "deregulating GP's" do you mean that any doctor can open as a GP practice even if they are not trained as a GP?

Any trained GP can open anywhere they want at the moment and charge whatever they want.

There is a severe problem with getting access to medical card contracts but that is a separate matter and will have no effects on costs to private paying patients.

nino1

RobFowl wrote: »

By "deregulating GP's" do you mean that any doctor can open as a GP practice even if they are not trained as a GP?

Any trained GP can open anywhere they want at the moment and charge whatever they want.

There is a severe problem with getting access to medical card contracts but that is a separate matter and will have no effects on costs to private paying patients.

so does deregulation only relate to medical card contracts?
is medical card contracts even an issue?

what effects will deregulation have for joe public?

Susie564

RobFowl wrote: »

......and will have no effects on costs to private paying patients.

What will?

2Scoops

Susie564 wrote: »

What will?

Competition.

Susie564

Well, that's what I thought, but.....

RobFowl wrote: »

Any trained GP can open anywhere they want at the moment and charge whatever they want.

So is it just a numbers thing then? If there were more GP's they would then have to compete for private patients?

I watched frontline last night, and the practice manager lady said something about how GP's basically look after medical card holders for free? So that's obviously not what's keeping them in business? So then access to the medical card lists is not the issue??

BTW I have no gripe with GP's, I'm very fond of mine and I feel he is worth every penny of the €55 euros I pay him for a consultation. I have however had different experiences with other GP's. But I found part of last nights friontline very confusing - one party says one thing, another something different.

RobFowl

Ok just to clarify. There is no "deregulation" planned. All GP's will continue to be fully trained and regulated even more .

What is proposed is that more GP's are to be trained. This has always been limited largely by the state. I costs money to train GP's and they simply haven't trained enough over the years.

Also at present it is very difficult for GP's t get contracts to see medical card patients. This is going to change so that all fuly trained and qualified GP's will be allowed contracts to treat medical card patients.

This will have no effect on costs as the Medical card system pays a fixed amount per patient per year. There never has been a limit on GP's treating private patients and this will not change.

The numbers of GP's qualifying and being trained will increase but this will be dependant on the state funding extra training positions. As it takes 4 years after qualifying to train a GP the effects of this will not be seen until 2016 at the earliest.

In fact the new medical practitioners act will in fact stop non GP trained doctors practising as GP's (as has been the case up to now) so in the short term there will actually be less doctors working as GP's , however those that do will be properly trained and qualified.

RobFowl

Susie564 wrote: »

What will?

RobFowl wrote: »

There is a severe problem with getting access to medical card contracts but that is a separate matter and will have no effects on costs to private paying patients.

Greater access to Medical card contracts will have no effect on the cost to see a GP privately..