General Practitioner experiences

BraziliaNZ

My GPs at home were great. It's annoying here in the UK as AFAIK I can only see GPs near my postcode, so I can't go to see ones near my job at lunchbreak etc. On the other hand they are free here, even for fordiners.

preddy

99% of patients come in with usual symptoms that turn out to be nothing more then that.
Its the 1% they seem to treat as the same until the patients starts to push things.
Like my wife.

After the 5th high blood pressure test he says emm lets put another monitor on you over night.

Different doctor: OMG why are you not on something for your blood pressure!!
start taking these and onto an ECG machine straight away.

Gael23

Sykk wrote: »

My latest experience with a new doctor I wanted to try out was Thursday.

I went to get my ear syringed as apparently I have a natural buildup of ear-wax that I can't clean myself. I had to get this done before. The doctor insisted "Take these drops, have a shower and sher it'll come out itself".

Here I sit, four days later with a massive ear ache, headache and deaf in my right ear.

Im not trying to give medical advice but I would expect any doctor to do that. I suffer from this myself and i've always tried drops before having my ears syringed.
To answer the question, Im very happy with my current GP, he shows interest in you whilst being very professional. He's not the kind of doctor who writes a prescription and off you go.

NovabooM

Unfortunately my doctor is stuck in a rut, too many patients, too long as a GP to give a damn anymore. He's been at it so long other GP's in the area won't take any of his patients.

He comes out with some beauts ;

Dr: What can I do for you?

Me: I believe I may be preggers(fingers crossed)

Dr: what??

Me: I've done few tests and they're positive (yipppppeee)

Dr: I bet it's for a married man

Me: ????? Wtf

I must mention that this dr has been my GP since birth, knows all of the family including my partner!!!

Needless to say I'm looking for new GP once I escape the clutches of Hospital

Roger Sterling

Sykk wrote: »

I have so many stories of neglect from these money making scammers it's just unreal. I've never been seriously ill, thank God. But I hope hospital doctors are better than these other people.

Probably because people generally don't go around telling you their good news stories, you're mosre likely to hear the few bad ones. Makes for better gossip around the water cooler, or fodder for indignant AH threads.

Odysseus

I work with GP most days so I know how lucky I am to have my GP. He will see me if I haven't got the fee, I have his private email and can mail him questions. I have some health issues at the moment and he has gone above and beyond for me. He emails me week to see how I am at the moment, what more can you ask for.

However, I also see how badly some of my clients are treated, e.g. well got your results back. yep you have HIV, no referral for counselling etc. However, you can't judge a whole profession by a few bad examples.

fasttalkerchat

Reality_Check1 wrote: »

Thats the nature of a broken colarbone unfortunately. I'd say your real gripe lies with the people who set it the first time and not the GP or specialist

How do you mean the person who set it originally? The nurse just x-rayed it, said yea its totally snapped and put on a sling.

fasttalkerchat

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

On the other hand they are free here, even for fordiners.

Unlike in Ireland where they are free only for foreigners!

Sky King

smash wrote: »

usual answer:

"It's a viral infection, can't do anything for it. That's €60 please..."

Better than

"It's a viral infection, here's some antibiotics which won't cure you but it will get you off my back"


which is what a lot of doctors seem to be doing these days.

pickarooney

I had a GP prescribe homeopathy for my son once. The useless сunt should be struck off for that.

Not even Firefox's spell-check recognises homeopathy.

Teyla Emmagan

NovabooM wrote: »

Unfortunately my doctor is stuck in a rut, too many patients, too long as a GP to give a damn anymore. He's been at it so long other GP's in the area won't take any of his patients.

He comes out with some beauts ;

Dr: What can I do for you?

Me: I believe I may be preggers(fingers crossed)

Dr: what??

Me: I've done few tests and they're positive (yipppppeee)

Dr: I bet it's for a married man

Me: ????? Wtf

I must mention that this dr has been my GP since birth, knows all of the family including my partner!!!

Needless to say I'm looking for new GP once I escape the clutches of Hospital

That's gas. He sounds great!

Sky King

pickarooney wrote: »

I had a GP prescribe homeopathy for my son once. The useless сunt should be struck off for that.

Not even Firefox's spell-check recognises homeopathy.

That's disgraceful, did you report his honky ass?

Acacia

My family one is pretty crap, I try to avoid getting her where possible. She is defintely not one for 'bedside manner', shall we say... a case in point, a few years ago I was underweight and my mam forced me to go to the doctor in case there was a medical reason for the weight loss. Your one took one look at me and "You're not anorexic, are you?":rolleyes:

How very sensitive! For the record, I didn't have an eating disorder, but if I did that would have been a pretty stupid way to address the problem.

NegativeCreep

My G.P. is lovely. She's a polish girl. She charges me half the price and if I come back complaining of the same illness she doesn't charge me anything. She's a bleedin ride aswell so that makes it all the better :L
Hopefully she charges me half price cause she fancies me too... doubtful :rolleyes:

NovabooM

Teyla Emmagan wrote: »

NovabooM wrote: »

Unfortunately my doctor is stuck in a rut, too many patients, too long as a GP to give a damn anymore. He's been at it so long other GP's in the area won't take any of his patients.

He comes out with some beauts ;

Dr: What can I do for you?

Me: I believe I may be preggers(fingers crossed)

Dr: what??

Me: I've done few tests and they're positive (yipppppeee)

Dr: I bet it's for a married man

Me: ????? Wtf

I must mention that this dr has been my GP since birth, knows all of the family including my partner!!!

Needless to say I'm looking for new GP once I escape the clutches of Hospital

That's gas. He sounds great!

He's a quack tbh. But hey I'm sure he'll improve as he ages, not :-(

cade

I haven't been in a few years as I don't get sick often but the last time I went it had also been a few years since my last visit as I simply visited the college nurse which was free rather than paying the €60. Anyhow I saw that my Doc had a MACbook on his desk with the screen facing me I then realised that the operating system was Linux and that the media player that was running was pumping some Nine Inch Nails songs out of the speakers

All in all he's a mad Doctor. He looks more like a hollywood film producer than a Doctor, think Steve martin in Bowfinger, i.e. grey hair tied back in a pony tail, designer glasses and wearing a fancy white shirt under a fashionable navy suit with brown sandals. Instead of asking me what's wrong the first fifteen minutes of conversation related to whether I liked computers, what Linux Distro I use and whether I'd be willing to install a Linux server for him. Ultimately we swapped distro cd's and then sorted out my sickness

spankysue

Had really bad stomach pains in my early teens that went on for about a year.

My doctor sent me for ultrasounds to check it out, told me there was something wrong with my ovaries and I'd never be able to have children.

The pain became really unbearable one night, went to a different doctor the next morning and he sent me to hospital straight away, as my appendics were about to burst.

woodoo

Reality_Check1 wrote: »

3. A medical card holder can visit as often as they want free of charge but the doc only gets paid for 3 visits as far as Im aware. I'm sure you can see how this is problematic if you have a surgery that is mainly attended by medical card holders

That is why they should be charged a fee for each visit. Eben €5 or €10. It would cut down on the unnecessary visits and ease the congestion at hospitals, lower the amount of wasted medication etc etc. It may even allow the doctors to reduce the price for private patients. Which at €60 is a deterrent for them.

Far too much consideration is given to medical card holders. Its the people just above the threshold for the Medical and GP Visit cards i feel sorry for.

ss88

Hello,
I know this discussion is a bit out of date, but never hurts to ask .
I've been looking at a way to find a good GP. Can't seem to find a page "like rate my GP".
I was wondering if anybody knows any good GPs in Dublin 6/8 , around Harold's cross/ Rathmines.
What I mean by good is: having some experience and preferably not very judgmental.

thanks a bunch !

looking_around

humbert wrote: »

People with medical cards should have to pay some nominal fee for a visit (maybe they do but seeing how frequently they go it's hard to imagine).

Oh thanks for that.

I'm on med. card. I can barely scrape up the charge for all my meds. I have to see my doctor pretty frequently. I don't just go "ah well, I have an hour to waste, lets go visit the gp...."

fcuk sake stop trying to charge us for everything, things really are hard enough atm. :mad:
_________
I've had pretty decent experience with docs overall.

My current one is fantastic. Listens/sends for tests/ and one of the things a sufferer of depression fears, is that any ailment from there on out is "depression". Thankfully my current doc doesn't assume that.
I've been sent to some specialists which have been good too.

Psychiatrists are downright useless though. Total waste of time.
(if on med card. you see a psych once every 3-4months, while your GP is the one who adjusts/changes meds etc. Psych just nods and says "continue working with your gp..".waste of time, and waste of tax payers money too.)

My last GP was downright useless. Would never send you for any tests or anything. Prescribed inhalers for any trouble breathing and never bothered to actually find out WHY.

But experience of docs has mostly been good.

razorblunt

I live in the UK and as someone said earlier you can't visit a GP outwith your postal code and a radius of 2 miles I think. Anyway I live in a relatively settled area where the majority ae old folk or women attending the doc's with newborns. Only been twice, same doctor a young enough woman who was obviously bored with the routine, I started the visit to her by saying " I think I damaged my elbow on my stag". She burst out laughing, "I knew this was going to be good, pull up a seat".

Gael23

I also have a medical card but didn't see my Doctor that often until about a year ago. He changed my medication so would have seen him monthly a while until I got used to it and he was happy it was working.
As. It turned out I had quite a setback a while ago and was going in every 2 weeks at one stage. Now I'm over that it's back to 2 months and see how it goes.
Until last year they would have been making a profit from me because they get a set fee per year and I might only have gone in 3 times.

jynx59

I went to see my doctor and there were a few people before me in the waiting room, anyway when it was my turn two people came in and he called them in before me, and I said it to him that I was here before them, and he started saying they were paying him (I had a medical card )he said some people that have medical card often slip me a fiver and thought it was a big joke, I was very upset the way he treated me like that so I reported him to the medical council.

A few weeks later I was crossing the road in the estate and he seen me so he stopped the car to let me cross, I said to myself, he's going to run me over when I'm halfway across because I reported him, but he did'nt

FanadMan

looking_around wrote: »

......

Psychiatrists are downright useless though. Total waste of time.
(if on med card. you see a psych once every 3-4months, while your GP is the one who adjusts/changes meds etc. Psych just nods and says "continue working with your gp..".waste of time, and waste of tax payers money too.)

I see my current psychiatrist every 6-8 weeks and I'm on a medical card and she is the only one that changes my meds. She is great - really nice, very empathetic and caring. So is my GP - guess I'm lucky

looking_around

FanadMan wrote: »

I see my current psychiatrist every 6-8 weeks and I'm on a medical card and she is the only one that changes my meds. She is great - really nice, very empathetic and caring. So is my GP - guess I'm lucky

you got very lucky there.

I've seen 2 psychiatrists in the last 5 years, a total of 3times, and I haven't bothered with them since.

I know a few others who don't either. And even my psychiatric nurse agreed seeing the psychiatrist was a waste of time.

However, I have depression, something my GP can manage just fine. I imagine for some of the more difficult mental illness to treat perhaps they'd see those people more often. Or for those with GPs without a good understanding.

Or maybe you're in a small area? Also, my experience is a couple of years old. Ireland has been pumping money into mental health, perhaps it's improved/improving.

westcoast66

Anyone know any unemployed doctors?

rainbow kirby

My old GP when I lived in Dublin city centre was great - always listened, ran tests as needed, but not too antibiotic-happy unless he was sure they were needed.

My GP growing up was awful though - no bedside manner and a little too quick to update my mother with anything that was said during a consultation.

Gael23

westcoast66 wrote: »

Anyone know any unemployed doctors?

There's no such thing, if there are doctors not working it's by choice. In fact there's a shortage of Doctors in this country.
I think no matter what your problem is, it's nice to have a GP that cares and listens to you, to me it is anyway.
I had been seeing a GP that I got on very well with but he relocated a few months ago and have been finding it hard to get a new one I'm as happy with. I want someone that's a good Doctor but who is also a friendly person to deal with

SEPT 23 1989

cade wrote: »

I

All in all he's a mad Doctor. He looks more like a hollywood film producer than a Doctor, think Steve martin in Bowfinger, i.e. grey hair tied back in a pony tail, designer glasses and wearing a fancy white shirt under a fashionable navy suit with brown sandals. Instead of asking me what's wrong the first fifteen minutes of conversation related to whether I liked computers, what Linux Distro I use and whether I'd be willing to install a Linux server for him. Ultimately we swapped distro cd's and then sorted out my sickness

Is his name James by any chance?:D

RoboRat

Its hit and miss really, there are some really incompetent doctors and even specialists out there.

I broke my knee in 3 places, tore all the ligaments and went to the doctor and was told I just sprained my leg. Really? My leg was like a watermelon.

Done the other knee and was 'guaranteed' by a specialist it was just a sprain, it was a torn acl.

What I do hate is when you go for a repeat prescription and they insist on 'seeing' you every time so they can charge you €60. They also seem to have no interest in actually diagnosing the problem. They will give you the 'cure' but they don't seem to bothered about why its happening, especially if its happening a lot.

My missus has experienced the same and she has had to tell her specialist what she 'should' be trying rather than vice versa. Its just seems like some are only happy to be milking people for money.