GP Now Swords Clinic

January

I'm not affiliated with this company but thought I'd post it here in case anyone is interested.

A new company (they have a clinic in Sandyford also) have opened a clinic in Swords. For €30 a month for a family of 5 (two adults and up to three children) can have unlimited GP visits, blood tests, administering of vaccinations and childhood vaccinations.

http://www.gpnow.ie/

I've signed up, have yet to have my first visit though but there are great reviews of the Sandyford one online.

pinkypinky

Interesting idea - I had passed by a few times but the website wasn't up until recently. It's a shame there's not a drop-in option but I can see this being very useful for families. There's a lot of typos on the website though, which does look a bit unprofessional. Also, I'd like it if they named all their doctors on the site. There's no company information.

eddiem74

My wife has been following this on various other forums and has said while it sounds to good to be true everyone posting has not been able to find any catch and has been extremely happy with the service. In fact I think in some locations they are no longer taking patients due to the up take.

Good to see some initiative being take in the private health care sector and its obviously working...

January

They've only two locations at the moment and they'll be taking on patients until the 31st of October in both locations.

I've rang them and asked them every question I can think of and I really cannot find any catch at all.

Frank Spencer

How long would you have to wait for a GP appointment?

Gael23

Just had a look at their site and the only catch I can see is that you still pay even if you don't use them but at that price it would pay off after very few visits.

charlietheminxx

This looks great! I'm not sick very often, but often find it hard to part with 60 euro when I am, especially as sometimes you need a repeat visit etc.

They also include sexual health screening, which can be very pricey to get done, and tbh, most of us should probably get done more often.

I think I might sign up for this!

pinkypinky

I called the tax office this morning to clarify and they confirmed that the full annual cost of this service would be allowable on Med1 expenses.

January

Frank Spencer wrote: »

How long would you have to wait for a GP appointment?

A few hours maybe? They say they can usually give you an appointment that day and if it's urgent they'll fit you in somewhere (someone on another forum rang them as their child was sick and they got seen to half an hour later).

ryanf1 wrote: »

Just had a look at their site and the only catch I can see is that you still pay even if you don't use them but at that price it would pay off after very few visits.

It definitely will pay for itself here anyway especially with three kids, two of them are in school/play school and will probably pick up everything going.

2Shae

Hi guys.

I just got a flyer in the door for GPNow.ie.it offers fixed monthly cost for GP visits. I am interested, just not to sure about it.

Has anyone used them before?

also if anyone else is interested the code on the voucher is gpnow15 it takes away the registration fee.

Khannie

Friend of mine used them for the out of hours service as they operate late enough and had a sick child on arrival home to lusk. Said it was grand.

edit: that was a one off

Death and Taxes

2Shae wrote: »

Hi guys.

I just got a flyer in the door for GPNow.ie.it offers fixed monthly cost for GP visits. I am interested, just not to sure about it.

Has anyone used them before?

also if anyone else is interested the code on the voucher is gpnow15 it takes away the registration fee.

I use the one in Sandyford because its close to where I work.
The GP there is great, they do everything from GP visits,blood tests, ecg etc there so waiting around or having to go to hospital for them.
With them a year now and my experience has been very positive.

marcanthony1

I wouldn't recommend GPnow at least not the one in Swords. Their ability to have simple lab tests done is inadequate and their reception/follow-up is unprofessional and their toilets are dirty.

Jay121

I joined GPNOW about a month ago and I have been in with them a couple of times, I think its great, doctors are great you don't real rushed very thorough and reception staff have been great once I was very sick and needed to see doc and even with them fully booked they still got me in, great service, even better not having to pay crazy fees each time! Compared to my last gps office the doc & reception staff extremely nice & accommodating! Would defo recommend to people!

Cice

Just paid €50 last week for GP had to go back this week with same thing and was charged €30 even though it was same thing. Can't afford this so thinking of joining GPNow in Swords. Just wondering how people found it and any names of good Doctor there? All advice welcome. Thanks.

pinkypinky

There's usually only one doctor on duty at any given time, so I don't think you can get consistancy with who you see. I've been twice and seen different male doctors each time. There's a female doctor who does one day there a week, afaik. The men I saw were both fine.

Death and Taxes

marcanthony1 wrote: »

I wouldn't recommend GPnow at least not the one in Swords. Their ability to have simple lab tests done is inadequate and their reception/follow-up is unprofessional and their toilets are dirty.

I have been using the one in Sandyford for over a year now.
Have had blood tests and ECG done there at no extra cost, find doctor friendly , amenable and highly professional.
Happy to discuss my experience with them by PM

Ginny

There's 1 full time dr in swords and 2 part time drs, they're remodelling the surgery and will have 2 full time drs soon. Have to say we've been going since Sept. and it's been great, they've fitted me in for last min emergency appointments and been really accommodating.

Dingle_berry

marcanthony1 wrote: »

I wouldn't recommend GPnow at least not the one in Swords. Their ability to have simple lab tests done is inadequate and their reception/follow-up is unprofessional and their toilets are dirty.

The lab tests are provided by the HSE free to all GPs regardless of wether the patient is public or private (thats why surgeries charging €20 for phlebotomy pisses me off!). Would you care to elaborate on how their service is inadequate?
How is their reception/follow-up unprofessional?
Did you complain about the toilets? Being public toilets maybe the local environmental health officer could take an interest if your complaint went nowhere?

How much is it for a single adult? I wouldn't visit a GP often enough to save money by paying €30/month. I assume that I would be the type of patient they would like to pad out their practise with - paying money for a service you'd hardly ever use

Ginny

Individual is €15 a month or €600 for 10 years. Family is €30 a month or €360 a year or €999 for 10 years.

pinkypinky

Er, individuals pay €180 a year (€15 a month). The details are all on the website, there's a cheaper rate for people over 60, I think.

Ginny

Sorry should have read €600 for 10 years.

RobFowl

Dingle_berry wrote: »

The lab tests are provided by the HSE free to all GPs regardless of wether the patient is public or private (thats why surgeries charging €20 for phlebotomy pisses me off!). Would you care to elaborate on how their service is inadequate?
How is their reception/follow-up unprofessional?
Did you complain about the toilets? Being public toilets maybe the local environmental health officer could take an interest if your complaint went nowhere?

How much is it for a single adult? I wouldn't visit a GP often enough to save money by paying €30/month. I assume that I would be the type of patient they would like to pad out their practise with - paying money for a service you'd hardly ever use

The lab testing is free, the staff taking the blood need to be paid and transport, storage and It integreation costs are not free.
If the lab costs were charged by the HSE as was planned a few years ago the costs would be in excess of 250 for "routine" bloods...

Dingle_berry

RobFowl wrote: »

The lab testing is free, the staff taking the blood need to be paid and transport, storage and It integreation costs are not free.
If the lab costs were chatged by the HSE as was planned a few years ago the costs would be in excess of 250 for "routine" bloods...

The last GP to take blood from me did it himself in the consultation. €20 on top of €60 is excessive to me.
Transport from my GPs is at my own cost. He gives me the package (provided by the HSE) and I either drop it in or post it myself.
AFAIK even with IT integration paper reports are still posted out?

And what really annoys me is when people tell me that the lab lost their sample so they had to go to the GP to get a repeat taken and pay the full €60+€20 again. It happens way more frequently than a lab "loses" a sample - coincidentally around the same frequency that mislabelled or incorrect samples are sent to labs...

L1011

Dingle_berry wrote: »

AFAIK even with IT integration paper reports are still posted out?

Slowly being done away with for obvious (postage costs) reasons.

You need a relatively new IT system to support the automatic integration, if you've an older one its a manual process and at that, one of the main vendors still doesn't even include support in their basic package.

In the North West and South of the country they use legacy systems that require manual work and in one case, dialup modems, dedicated phone lines and a ridiculous amount of faffing around.

Dingle_berry

MYOB wrote: »

Slowly being done away with for obvious (postage costs) reasons.

You need a relatively new IT system to support the automatic integration, if you've an older one its a manual process and at that, one of the main vendors still doesn't even include support in their basic package.

In the North West and South of the country they use legacy systems that require manual work and in one case, dialup modems, dedicated phone lines and a ridiculous amount of faffing around.

Just lends strength to my opinion that so much more could be done to cut costs, other than untargeted retirements and blanket pay cuts, if the capital could be found somewhere (or negotiated from suppliers?). A centralised IT system and department for a start.

Anyway €180 is still more than my average annual spend on a GP, so far, so I won't be signing up.
However should the FG/L healthcare holy grail of free primary care not be realised I would much prefer a subscription system like this. I wonder if the idea will catch on?

RobFowl

Dingle_berry wrote: »

Just lends strength to my opinion that so much more could be done to cut costs, other than untargeted retirements and blanket pay cuts, if the capital could be found somewhere (or negotiated from suppliers?). A centralised IT system and department for a start.

Anyway €180 is still more than my average annual spend on a GP, so far, so I won't be signing up.
However should the FG/L healthcare holy grail of free primary care not be realised I would much prefer a subscription system like this. I wonder if the idea will catch on?

My personal business reservations is re the potential cost andeffect one workload. There is data which suggests that medicalc ard patients consult on average 6 times a year compared to private patients who on average consult 2 times.
There are too few GP's here already and 50% of those qualifying are emigrating almost immediately.
That said kudos to GP now for innovation. I'll be interested to see how this works. from personal experience we looked into this model and found it unsustainable due to the unpredicatable effect on workload. Also it seems to work best with out having the same GP in situ most of the time and is in effect more a monir/acute illness model and doesn't take into account chronic disease management which is the (supposed) aim for the future.
Good luck to them though.

pinkypinky

Dingle_berry wrote: »

Anyway €180 is still more than my average annual spend on a GP, so far, so I won't be signing up.
?

My logic was that I went for prescription renewals twice a year, and probably one other time for genuine illness but there were at least two more times a year that I should have gone and didn't to keep costs low...at €50 a go, this service works out cheaper. Especially since it can be put on the Med1 claim.

C.O.Y.B.I.B

Dingle_berry wrote: »

Just lends strength to my opinion that so much more could be done to cut costs, other than untargeted retirements and blanket pay cuts, if the capital could be found somewhere (or negotiated from suppliers?). A centralised IT system and department for a start.

Anyway €180 is still more than my average annual spend on a GP, so far, so I won't be signing up.
However should the FG/L healthcare holy grail of free primary care not be realised I would much prefer a subscription system like this. I wonder if the idea will catch on?

The centralised system already exists . http://www.healthlink.ie
My understanding is that a lot of GP'S need to update their practice management systems to integrate with it.

L1011

C.O.Y.B.I.B wrote: »

The centralised system already exists . http://www.healthlink.ie
My understanding is that a lot of GP'S need to update their practice management systems to integrate with it.

Only covers the central belt and north east for labs

Dingle_berry

RobFowl wrote: »

My personal business reservations is re the potential cost andeffect one workload. There is data which suggests that medicalc ard patients consult on average 6 times a year compared to private patients who on average consult 2 times.
There are too few GP's here already and 50% of those qualifying are emigrating almost immediately.
That said kudos to GP now for innovation. I'll be interested to see how this works. from personal experience we looked into this model and found it unsustainable due to the unpredicatable effect on workload. Also it seems to work best with out having the same GP in situ most of the time and is in effect more a monir/acute illness model and doesn't take into account chronic disease management which is the (supposed) aim for the future.
Good luck to them though.

Typical reaction of trying to get value for money. Or getting the most out of your freebie. But did that data take account of people with chronic illness? Or how peoples socio-economic status and background affects their health? - if we cancelled all medical cards would these people still present 6 times more frequently than others?

With GPs, and other professionals emigrating I think something should be done. If the country pays for your education it should recieve some return on the incestment. If you need to go abroad to gain experience etc fine - but if you don't come back you should repay something.

As I've said, my own personal health (history) would indicate that this model would be more expensive for me. A GP with late (after 18:00) surgery hours would be better, for me.
If I had a chronic condition having the same GP reviewing my case, most of the time, would be important too.