Public to private consultation

LegacyUser

Hi everyone,

I have a public consultation due in november and i may not actually be in the country on the date.

Is it possible to change from a public consult to a private one? And if so how do i go about setting this up? Call my GP? Or the hospital the Appointment is due in?

Also if i got a referral sent to a private consultate tomorrow for example, how long would it usually take to set up an appointment?

I have private insurance and i would like to get the problem sorted as soon as possible.

Im only told my GP i would go public in the first place because im terrible at decision making and rushed it.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Spook_ie

All you do is get a referral letter from your GP, then you ring up the Consultants Private Secretary and ask for an appointment - its really as simple as that. Private Consultants usually charge in the range of 120 to 200 euros. As to the waiting time, its impossible to comment, I am under a Private Orthopaedic Surgeon & a Neurosurgeon, and if I were to ring today I'd be waiting approx 2 weeks for the Ortho, but when I had a back problem last January, I rang the Neuro on a Monday and was seen on the Wednesday, yet my dad was seeing his Cardiologist recently and had to wait 5 weeks so every Consultant is different. Also the waiting time can be influenced by how many hospitals the Consultant works from, in theory he/she could be working from 2 different Private Clinics and waiting times could be different in each, so you'll have to do a bit of homework as to where your chosen consultant works from.....

lollpop

I've seen various consultants over the last few years and as spook_ie says, it just depends on the particular person. I've had waiting lists ranging from a couple of weeks to 5 months for private appointments.

huskerdu

As was said, you should go through our GP and get a referral. But, dont immediately assume that you should go with the first consultant that your GP suggests. Check a few things first.

1) Check the details of your Private health insurance. The consultation fee is likely to be between €150-180. Most PHI polices pay either 0 or €60 per visit, and some have a big excess before paying out on out-patient expenses. Check what your policy says. Anthing that our policy does not pay out, you can get 21% tax back on

2) If the medical issue is going to involve an operation or in-hospital procedure, Check the details of what private hospitals your policy covers and make sure that the consultant you go to works in one of those hospitals,