GP NOW Bust

forzacalcio

As it says on the tin, closed up shop and told nobody, cancel any direct debits people

blindsider

Who was GP NOW? Hadn't heard of them....

FiveSive

I am a member of Cork clinic, I havent heard anything! will ring them 1st thing in the morning, direct debit not due out until 15th for me so I have plenty of time to cancel. Can't believe it, thought they would do really well

forzacalcio

Just passed the place, all signs taken down

FiveSive

Phoned them this morning, gp now gone into liquidation, am disgusted!

Secretary told me they didn't pay staff, including doctor for last 2 months and emailed them Friday to tell them they were out of a job.

I paid €180 upfront in February, doubt I'll see that again if the staff havent even been paid!!!

They are setting up a new clinic in place of gpnow cork, with the same doctor.

Cancel your direct debits with GP Now everyone!!!!!! am so p***ed off they didnt even contact me! they sent me texts every week to tell me to subscribe to 3 year or 10 year plan and yet they dont contact me to tell me they've closed down!!

mikeym

They havent been open for long in Cork.

FiveSive

Opened since June 2013 in cork

omahaid

We just got the letter. Am very shocked. Better cancel the direct debit asap!

beer enigma

FiveSive wrote: »

Phoned them this morning, gp now gone into liquidation, am disgusted!

Secretary told me they didn't pay staff, including doctor for last 2 months and emailed them Friday to tell them they were out of a job.

I paid €180 upfront in February, doubt I'll see that again if the staff havent even been paid!!!

They are setting up a new clinic in place of gpnow cork, with the same doctor.

Cancel your direct debits with GP Now everyone!!!!!! am so p***ed off they didnt even contact me! they sent me texts every week to tell me to subscribe to 3 year or 10 year plan and yet they dont contact me to tell me they've closed down!!

So are they answering the phone in Cork today ? strange if they're in liquidation with unpaid staff ?

I know Swords are still open today & nothing on the website or Twitter

FiveSive

Yep they are answering phone alright, talked to lady in there for a while 1st thing this morning...they are setting up new clinic with same doctor in Union Quay to try and salvage the business in some way.

Prob be the same business just different owners.

I'm sure as a medical clinic they have some responsibility to the patients

rob316

Ya my company supplies them, got the letter for the creditors meeting this morning:mad:

beer enigma

FiveSive wrote: »

Yep they are answering phone alright, talked to lady in there for a while 1st thing this morning...they are setting up new clinic with same doctor in Union Quay to try and salvage the business in some way.

Prob be the same business just different owners.

I'm sure as a medical clinic they have some responsibility to the patients

Well unless they look after the existing clients, I cant see the new business doing very well

Hermione1

I know for a fact they do not pay their doctors hence the large turnover of staff. I would not be subscribing to GP Now as cancelling the direct debit does not get you out of your contractual obligation - you have no choice but to pay 12 months if you read the small print!!

mikeym

Why arent the radio stations mentioning this?

Hermione1

Only a matter of time as I understand the Swords location is in trouble. They have split each location into a seperate company and your membership is with GP Now (Irish Primary Medical Practice (Swords) Limited, trading as GPNow) so as such your membership stands albeit the local surgery maybe closed.

murphym7

Hermione1 wrote: »

I know for a fact they do not pay their doctors hence the large turnover of staff. I would not be subscribing to GP Now as cancelling the direct debit does not get you out of your contractual obligation - you have no choice but to pay 12 months if you read the small print!!

I think shutting down the Cork office does pretty much obsolve you of your contractual obligation. There is not a court in the land that would keep you tied to this crowd if your nearest office was in Dublin, small print or no small print.

Hermione1

Agreed with Cork but if you were dependent on the Swords location you would be in trouble as they will redirect you to Sandyford or somewhere else. New membership is now linked to Primary Medical Practice (Sandyford) Limited on their terms and conditions, this has changed from Irish Primary Medical Practice (Swords) Limited which it was yesterday. Swords will close shortly - mark my words. A lot of people have paid upfront and will not see a penny back!!

Eurovisionmad

Hmm interesting that they fell apart without Medical Card patients, a pity really, it is a fantastic idea for primary care!

run_Forrest_run

Eurovisionmad wrote: »

Hmm interesting that they fell apart without Medical Card patients, a pity really, it is a fantastic idea for primary care!

I'm guessing the majority of users of the medical system are medical card holders (especially the elderly), they are the ones who can decide to go to a doctor on a whim.
The healthcare system in this country is broken and there is no sign of recovery in the near future which is a big worry for those who actually have to pay for their healthcare.

Eurovisionmad

run_Forrest_run wrote: »

I'm guessing the majority of users of the medical system are medical card holders (especially the elderly), they are the ones who can decide to go to a doctor on a whim.
The healthcare system in this country is broken and there is no sign of recovery in the near future which is a big worry for those who actually have to pay for their healthcare.

About 50% of the population have medical cards, then add to that GP cards and yeah who the Government bequeaths a public patient contract to makes a very big difference!

What's disappointing is that I really thought this would be the best form of primary care provision rather than the government nationalising the whole system or UHI.

glass half full

Under new SEPA rules, you can contact your bank and request a direct debit refund. The big change now, under SEPA, is that there is a no questions asked policy.

In other words if you request that your bank refund a direct debit that has been sent in the past 8 weeks, they must do so NO QUESTIONS ASKED!!

This may help people get a few direct debits back that were paid to GP NOW.

Please see the quote below from SEPA literature:
"For private individuals, if a debit is processed which is in doubt, the debtor will be able to request a refund or amendment to the amount for up to 8 weeks after the processing date."

Loire

Just goes to show how dependent the GPs in this country are on medical cards!

omahaid

I wonder is it more that people are unwilling to change their GP? That money isn't a factor?

FrStone

omahaid wrote: »

I wonder is it more that people are unwilling to change their GP? That money isn't a factor?

I doubt it. They were only targeting themselves at people who had to pay the €50 for each visit. The examiner did an article about it today. 40 to 50 people had paid up front for 10 years. The price for GPs in Ireland is very high and I doubt that many are happy with the current situation.

Paying for GP visits for 10 years in advance seems mad though, we surely will have Free GP care for all by 2024. We are one of the only countries left in from the EU 15 that doesn't...

Eurovisionmad

FrStone wrote: »

Paying for GP visits for 10 years in advance seems mad though, we surely will have Free GP care for all by 2024. We are one of the only countries left in from the EU 15 that doesn't...

That was one of the understood risks people took on when they joined them, obviously it was cheaper per year to do 10 years in advance but you mightn't have still been around by then and of course free GP care could've come in, but people choose to pay anyway!

Interesting that it was only mentioned today on Morning Ireland that GP NOW in Cork had closed, and only then because it was in the Papers section with the Irish Examiner.

omahaid

If I was a Dublin member I'd be getting a bit nervous about Cork closing down.

Eurovisionmad

omahaid wrote: »

If I was a Dublin member I'd be getting a bit nervous about Cork closing down.

In Dublin though they may well have reached the critical balance of patients to make it work, only time will tell!

Loire

Eurovisionmad wrote: »

In Dublin though they may well have reached the critical balance of patients to make it work, only time will tell!

I'm not so sure...think about the model - if they have a lot of customers who have paid up front for 10 years for example and they're not winning new customers, they have zero incentive to remain open....they have all the money they're gonna get and will only incur costs staying open.

FiveSive

Loire wrote: »

I'm not so sure...think about the model - if they have a lot of customers who have paid up front for 10 years for example and they're not winning new customers, they have zero incentive to remain open....they have all the money they're gonna get and will only incur costs staying open.

I agree completely with this, i think the idea is to get as much money upfront as possible and then close the doors. There is no way the long term business model can work.

Boards.ie: Niamh

Hello folks, GPNow have been reading this thread and asked to use their right of reply to respond with some information:

Dear Member,
GPNow Limited is happy to confirm that all upfront members in our Cork clinic will be refunded the unused portion of their membership.

This is offered as an act of good faith from GP Now Limited and was offered at a meeting on the 15th May 2014.

We would like to again express our regret about the failure of the Cork clinic and explain that we simply did not get the volume of members in Cork necessary to make the business viable.

This is a set-back for us and I understand any concern you have had but I must emphasise that our Dublin operation does have sufficient volume of members and continues to trade normally.

Thank you all for your continued support.

Robert Meleady,
Chief Financial Officer,
GPNow.

rob316

The creditors meeting was an absolute waste of time, they generally are you usually go to just have a cut off the management. All the members will be looked after and all monies will be refunded, us suppliers got a measly 2c in every €1 (didn't cover the fuel to Mitchelstown).

Disgraceful company, as far as I could see they didn't pay a single supplier in the 12 months they were trading. Rude and ignorant CEO at the meeting too.

They caught one supplier for 85k.

rob316

Dear Member,
GPNow Limited is happy to confirm that all upfront members in our Cork clinic will be refunded the unused portion of their membership.

This is offered as an act of good faith from GP Now Limited and was offered at a meeting on the 15th May 2014.

We would like to again express our regret about the failure of the Cork clinic and explain that we simply did not get the volume of members in Cork necessary to make the business viable.

This is a set-back for us and I understand any concern you have had but I must emphasise that our Dublin operation does have sufficient volume of members and continues to trade normally.

Thank you all for your continued support.

Robert Meleady,
Chief Financial Officer,
GPNow.

:rolleyes::rolleyes:
Good faith - more like they had no choice so they could retain there integrity with there Dublin customers. If they stiffed the Cork crowd you could be sure there would be a queue of people in Dublin cancelling there direct debits with them.

They have lost nothing, they set up a separate company to the Dublin company so all debts would be limited to the cork company. Another example of a reckless company, that had no real financial back up plan if plan A failed. Liquidate the company and burn your creditors.

The_Chap

Letter through the door today saying they are now introducing charges for all 3/5/10 year and lifetime plan holders!

€15 for each time you want/need one of the following

Blood test
Annual Flu vaccination
per prescription
per sick note

this could be the beginning of the end - penalising and discriminating those who pay up front - great strategy!