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Cost of visiting a GP

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    #62
    Muahahaha
    Registered Users Posts: 19,615 ✭✭✭✭Muahahaha


    Plumbthedepths wrote: »
    I'd prefer if medical card holders paid a flat fee per visit, say 15 euro. Would encourage them to place a value on the service they use and cut down on crowding and the waiting room wouldn't be full of idiots with nothing more than headcolds.

    Definitely this, because there is no value on it people abuse the system. So you end up with medical card holders just heading along to the doctor every week for a chat because they're lonely or just have little else to be doing. If you had a nominal 15 euro charge on it that would soon stop.


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    #63
    Mad_maxx
    Registered Users Posts: 13,505 ✭✭✭✭Mad_maxx


    Wesser wrote: »
    I paid e70 recently for a plumber to spend 6 minutes fixing a leaky tap. GP looks like good value in comparison. might do something that saves my life .

    In the vast majority of cases, GP, s just pass you on to someone up the chain, they do fcuk all at primary care level

    In many countries, you can have an xray in GP clinics, thus taking pressure off hospitals, gps in Ireland don't want to spend money on anything bar magazines for the waiting room


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    #64
    Mad_maxx
    Registered Users Posts: 13,505 ✭✭✭✭Mad_maxx


    the beer revolu wrote: »
    I despise paying a GP, I always feel cheated - it's usually just for a prescription that I already know I need. It just never seems like value for money - perhaps because I've never found a really good GP (thankfully, I rarely need a doctor). And why do I always have to wait at least 20 minutes for a scheduled appointment?

    Conversely, I think €50 for a good physiotherapist is a bargain for 45-50 minutes of hands on work and expert advice and I walk in at the appointed time.

    Vast majority of doctors ( including consultants) are mediocre, rare you meet someone who impresses


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    #65
    Mad_maxx
    Registered Users Posts: 13,505 ✭✭✭✭Mad_maxx


    Geuze wrote: »
    Indeed.

    And you'll be delighted to hear that the already generous over 70s GMS means test limits have been increased again.

    Politicians have near absolute cover to spoil pensioners, you only have to read this forum to see that


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    #66
    wrangler
    Registered Users Posts: 11,064 ✭✭✭✭wrangler


    Mad_maxx wrote: »
    Vast majority of doctors ( including consultants) are mediocre, rare you meet someone who impresses

    I've a good GP so happy enough there, but had a hernia repair last year that didn't go well, very painful, so wouldn't be in a hurry back there.
    Doing this Keyhole surgery do they even know where they're going half the time


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    #67
    caff
    Registered Users Posts: 954 ✭✭✭caff


    Mad_maxx wrote: »
    In the vast majority of cases, GP, s just pass you on to someone up the chain, they do fcuk all at primary care level

    In many countries, you can have an xray in GP clinics, thus taking pressure off hospitals, gps in Ireland don't want to spend money on anything bar magazines for the waiting room
    They'd need to hire a radiographer to run the xray machine and a room to use it in. Most single GP practices wouldn't be able afford it. One of the larger multi go ones or a coop might.


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    #68
    antodeco
    Registered Users, Subscribers Posts: 13,436 ✭✭✭✭antodeco


    moycullen14 wrote: »
    then think about how much the MC holder is paying.......


    giphy.gif


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    #69
    dartboardio
    Registered Users Posts: 2,436 ✭✭✭dartboardio


    Extremely expensive. Not everyone works in a place where they include health insurance, or can afford to have a private health insurance plan.

    If you're just over the limit in regards to a medical card, you're fooked when you get sick because you have to pay for the GP visit and your medication. €50/60 isn't alot in hindsight but it is to someone on a relatively low income of €2/300ish a week for example. On top of their weekly outgoings, and of course its never just the gp visit you'll have to pay an extra €20 or so for meds!

    Covered now but a few months ago when I had no cover I had to get my ear cleared out, so it was €50 for the visit then €40 for the cleaning!

    That is expensive compared to other countries no matter what your income is.


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    #70
    Cina
    Registered Users Posts: 2,387 ✭✭✭Cina


    dartboardio wrote: »
    Extremely expensive. Not everyone works in a place where they include health insurance, or can afford to have a private health insurance plan.

    If you're just over the limit in regards to a medical card, you're fooked when you get sick because you have to pay for the GP visit and your medication. €50/60 isn't alot in hindsight but it is to someone on a relatively low income of €2/300ish a week for example. On top of their weekly outgoings, and of course its never just the gp visit you'll have to pay an extra €20 or so for meds!

    Covered now but a few months ago when I had no cover I had to get my ear cleared out, so it was €50 for the visit then €40 for the cleaning!

    That is expensive compared to other countries no matter what your income is.
    If someone is on 200/300e a week then they're doing something wrong because they should either have a medical card or complain they're not getting minimum wage!


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    #71
    Plumbthedepths
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,653 ✭✭✭✭Plumbthedepths


    Cina wrote: »
    If someone is on 200/300e a week then they're doing something wrong because they should either have a medical card or complain they're not getting minimum wage!

    You should have a look at the income limits for a medical/GP card on the Citizens Information site. They are quite low. Less than 200 for a Medical card and less than 310 for a GP card.


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    #72
    Cina
    Registered Users Posts: 2,387 ✭✭✭Cina


    Plumbthedepths wrote: »
    You should have a look at the income limits for a medical/GP card on the Citizens Information site. They are quite low. Less than 200 for a Medical card and less than 310 for a GP card.

    It's impossible to make 200e/300e on minimum wage though, which is my point.

    Unless I'm missing some profession or way of living that only gets you 200e/300e a week and no medical card access? Which I certainly could be.


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    #73
    manbitesdog
    Closed Accounts Posts: 91 ✭✭manbitesdog


    Expensive and usually pretty rubbish. Our system of having to access everything through GPs instead of going straight to relevant specialist is bs.


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    #74
    dartboardio
    Registered Users Posts: 2,436 ✭✭✭dartboardio


    Cina wrote: »
    If someone is on 200/300e a week then they're doing something wrong because they should either have a medical card or complain they're not getting minimum wage!

    Sorry? There are multiple scenarios people could find themselves in.

    Someone that can only get a ten hour contract but gets the rest in jobseekers, their small wage might still bring them slightly over the threshold

    People on XS and OS

    Plus not everyone is given a medical card automatically once they have a low income, I'm sure there are people out there that don't even know they máy be entitled to one


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    #75
    Plumbthedepths
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,653 ✭✭✭✭Plumbthedepths


    Cina wrote: »
    It's impossible to make 200e/300e on minimum wage though, which is my point.

    Unless I'm missing some profession or way of living that only gets you 200e/300e a week and no medical card access? Which I certainly could be.

    Do you think a trip to the doctor at circa 60 euro and prehaps meds cost of 30 is affordable to someone on the minimum wage?


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    #76
    r93kaey5p2izun
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,962 ✭✭✭r93kaey5p2izun


    I think the primary care services available in this country are abysmal, and yes, I think €60 is too much for a GP visit given the limited service on offer. I don't want free universal GP visits as I believe they will be abused, but there has to be a happy medium. Tbh, I wish I had access to the same level of care as my pets where I can have blood results within an hour, xrays done then and there, minor surgery performed within a few days, and referral to expert consultants within a month if necessary. I never understand complaints about the cost of veterinary care, the standards are so high for a fairly reasonable cost. I firmly believe my pets receive superior healthcare to me, and at times I would happily allow my vet treat me if he would be allowed to.


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    #77
    reg114
    Registered Users Posts: 687 ✭✭✭reg114


    the beer revolu wrote: »
    I think that depends on the physio (and, maybe the condition).
    When attending the physio, she sent me to the doctor for pain meds. After a few weeks, he insisted on an MRI. My physio's description of what was wrong with me was basically the MRI report, almost word for word.
    Why can't a physio refer a patient for an MRI?

    If I know I need to see a specialist, why do I need a piece of paper from a GP? That's a scam, imo.

    I would agree that you shouldnt need to see a gp to get an MRI. Mind you you shouldnt need to see a gp to get a referral to see a consultant either especially if you are paying the consultant yourself. Pharmacists should be given the same freedom to prescribe drugs like they are in spain.


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    #78
    Obvious Desperate Breakfasts
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,474 ✭✭✭Obvious Desperate Breakfasts


    reg114 wrote: »
    When it comes to physios I can tell you from personal experience that it is prudent to have an mri on the injury before attending a physio. Certain symptoms can mimic a variety of injuries and you remove any doubt or misdiagnosis by getting a scan .

    On the GP front my GP is 40 quid and charges an extra tenner for bloods

    Uh huh. I was scheduled to visit a physio around the time I was diagnosed with cancer. I am so glad I didn’t make that appointment because I’m pretty sure I’d have left with broken bones due to my spine and ribcage being pathologically weakened.


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    #79
    Obvious Desperate Breakfasts
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,474 ✭✭✭Obvious Desperate Breakfasts


    moycullen14 wrote: »
    Next time you're sitting in a GP's waiting room, think of the ways in which you are paying for the service:

    55 euro for the visit
    Income tax
    VHI or similar
    Prescription charges

    then think about how much the MC holder is paying.......

    I qualified for a medical card because I have terminal cancer. You want it?

    Seriously lads, none of ye want the things that will get you a medical card. Serious illness, low income, being old. I’d much rather be in your position, complaining about GP costs.


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    #80
    Andreas77
    Closed Accounts Posts: 183 ✭✭Andreas77


    Sorry for double post or I forgot to hit send. I have lived in Europe for many years, and would suggest that Irish healthcare is poorest, with poorest value for money. I have been misdiagnosed by lazy doctors, spent a fortune on unnecessary medications, have to fight for specific tests to be administered, only later to be proven 100% right in their expediency. I was scolded by doctor for suggesting certain deficiency of mineral, and eventually when they carried out tests, mineral deficiency was lowest the laboratory had seen. Many of these are low IQ individuals with little natural curiosity who do not follow newest medical literature, and sneer at any research taken by patient, but when they put on white gown, people in this country will buy into charade, even though they are being shafted, by a clown. I always go to female doctors instead of male, Actually the best doctor I visited was female, she treated me as paying customer and would deliver whichever tests I requested, and we had long discussions, sometimes veering into philosophy, but here, here I find the doctors very dim, very dim indeed. Really the price is exorbitant, and if I have a lifelong illness why dp I have to pay this rotten middleman twenty euro for the privilege of a 'repeat prescription', it makes me angry.


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    #81
    thomasdylan
    Closed Accounts Posts: 514 ✭✭✭thomasdylan


    reg114 wrote: »
    I would agree that you shouldnt need to see a gp to get an MRI. Mind you you shouldnt need to see a gp to get a referral to see a consultant either especially if you are paying the consultant yourself. Pharmacists should be given the same freedom to prescribe drugs like they are in spain.

    An MRI scanner costs at the very minimum 1 million. The scan itself takes 20 or 30 mins. If people could refer themselves for MRIs there'd be some people scanning every bit of themselves and waiting lists would be worse than they already are. There's be incidentalomas that set off a cascade of further investigations into asymptomatic patients. ANd you'd need to hire more doctors and radiographers.


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    #82
    171170
    Closed Accounts Posts: 321 ✭✭171170


    Cordell wrote: »
    Only with them?

    They run slower than the rest of us, so it usually catches them first.


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    #83
    171170
    Closed Accounts Posts: 321 ✭✭171170


    caff wrote: »
    They'd need to hire a radiographer to run the xray machine and a room to use it in. Most single GP practices wouldn't be able afford it. One of the larger multi go ones or a coop might.

    My dentist takes x-rays and interprets them - for free - as part of my PRSI-based annual check up.

    I assume that teeth are simpler to x-ray, but I'd imagine that GPs would/should be able to take and interpret simple x-rays, as they would all have spent time in A&E as part of their training.


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    #84
    thomasdylan
    Closed Accounts Posts: 514 ✭✭✭thomasdylan


    171170 wrote: »
    My dentist takes x-rays and interprets them - for free - as part of my PRSI-based annual check up.

    I assume that teeth are simpler to x-ray, but I'd imagine that GPs would/should be able to take and interpret simple x-rays, as they would all have spent time in A&E as part of their training.

    GPs will spend 4 months training in ED. Every Xray taken in ED or anyone else in hospital is overread by a radiologist to reduce the chances of something being missed. Say a GP has the system you want and does a CXR in someone with a cough. It shows a pneumonia which is picked up but also a single rib lesion that is missed but turns out to be a metastases. I can't imagine many (or any) GPs are going to be comfortable with that.

    I think this is one of those things where the less you know about it, the simpler it seems. There's a reason why there are radiographers and radiologists and they need years of training.


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    #85
    MIKEKC
    Registered Users Posts: 1,138 ✭✭✭MIKEKC


    Plumbthedepths wrote: »
    It ain't free, it's part of your annual premium.

    So true, it never fails to amaze me how people think they get something for free. These visits are reflected in your premium.


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    #86
    MIKEKC
    Registered Users Posts: 1,138 ✭✭✭MIKEKC


    171170 wrote: »
    My dentist takes x-rays and interprets them - for free - as part of my PRSI-based annual check up.

    I assume that teeth are simpler to x-ray, but I'd imagine that GPs would/should be able to take and interpret simple x-rays, as they would all have spent time in A&E as part of their training.

    Another one that thinks they are getting something free after paying PRSI all their lives


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    #87
    downtheroad
    Registered Users Posts: 2,797 ✭✭✭downtheroad


    Plumbthedepths wrote: »
    I'd prefer if medical card holders paid a flat fee per visit, say 15 euro. Would encourage them to place a value on the service they use and cut down on crowding and the waiting room wouldn't be full of idiots with nothing more than headcolds.

    Or else give medical card holders a certain number of free visits per year, maybe 3 , after which they have to pay a nominal fee such as your €15 suggestion.


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    #88
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    ReginaldSmythV wrote: »
    I'd rather pay it than have the situation like the NHS where people will go with the slightest sniffle because it's free and it takes 3 or 4 days to get an appointment.

    It takes 3 or 4 days to see my doctor in south Dublin. €60, but that’s bound to go up soon. The funny thing is when there were 4 doctors working in the practice you could get an appointment next day, or maybe same day if you had pneumonia (reported coughing blood), but the practice was swamped out. One day the queue actually went out beyond the door and I started a thread here after that visit. Tons of children, elderly, new settlers. It was out of control.

    Then an announcement came from surgery that there would only be one full time and one part time. The full time man being the original doctor who co-founded the practice. One doctor retired youngish, the other went to another connected practice but at a distance. It did mean waiting days for an appointment, but now when I go (and I have to because of long term health issues) there is never more than about one or two others in waiting room and he gives lots of time. I didn’t like to ask him had they informed more recent patients that they could no longer keep them on list and would have to go to the connected practice in city centre area or have those people simply “given up” going because they would have to wait 4 days for an appointment.


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    #89
    Lily_Aldrin7
    Registered Users Posts: 147 ✭✭Lily_Aldrin7


    I also wanted to say something about NHS- a friend of mine lives in London and she regularly visits her GP out of being paranoid and gets appointments the same day she calls. She had a lump in her breast and they did all tests and they said it’s not dangerous but she keeps calling once a month to have them check it again because she’s worried. Last month she went in because she felt her left armpit sweats more than the right one and got full blood tests done. She goes when she gets a cold just to be told she has a cold.
    I found a lump on my collarbone which really bothered me, waited for a week to get an appointment with my GP and I was told I’m hypochondriac because I was under 30 at the time and shouldn’t be thinking about cancer. My cousin died from cancer the same year and she was under 30 when she got it!


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    #90
    mariaalice
    Registered Users Posts: 12,378 ✭✭✭✭mariaalice


    Use doc online or similar my health insurance cover this but they are cheaper than going to a regular GP, they email the prescription to any pharmacy you choose, you won't get any medication that can be abused but other than that its a great system.


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    #91
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    Lily_Aldrin7 wrote: »
    I also wanted to say something about NHS- a friend of mine lives in London and she regularly visits her GP out of being paranoid and gets appointments the same day she calls. She had a lump in her breast and they did all tests and they said it’s not dangerous but she keeps calling once a month to have them check it again because she’s worried. Last month she went in because she felt her left armpit sweats more than the right one and got full blood tests done. She goes when she gets a cold just to be told she has a cold.
    I found a lump on my collarbone which really bothered me, waited for a week to get an appointment with my GP and I was told I’m hypochondriac because I was under 30 at the time and shouldn’t be thinking about cancer. My cousin died from cancer the same year and she was under 30 when she got it!

    That’s a very dangerous attitude by the GPs; there is a post on boards about this very thing where a lump was ignored by doctors until it was too late. One needs to be very forthright with doctors like this and “bully” them into investigating. A lump is cancer until it is determined beyond reasonable doubt not to be.


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