Irish medical system

In Ireland we have a public/private health care system. Most people must pay to visit a GP or a private consultant. Public hospitals are free but waiting queues can be quite long. If you have private health insurance (offered by most employers) you can bypass the public queue and get an appointment with a consultant at a private hospital fairly quickly. Otherwise you may have to wait for months if not years to get an appointment at the public hospital though this depends on the criticality of the procedure. GP fees typically range between 50 to 100 Euros while most consultants will charge a minimum of 150 Euro for an initial consultation and any extra procedures will cost more.

Luckily, I haven’t had too much experience dealing with the Irish health care system. I have gone to see GPs many times and occasionally I have had to see a consultant. I have private medical insurance so the process has been relatively fast and painless for me. I often hear nightmarish tales of the public system in the media and through word of mouth. I hadn’t had to face the system until recently and to my surprise it turned out to be quite the opposite of what I had expected.

My parents from Canada recently visited us in Dublin. My mother is a heart patient with a whole range of other ailments including asthma, irregular heart beat, water retention, stroke and many more. Before arriving in Dublin she caught a chest infection in London. A chest infection is a common and relatively minor condition for healthy individuals but it can be very dangerous for asthmatics and heart patients. Soon after arriving in Dublin, her condition worsened and she started to have breathing difficulties which prompted us to take her to the emergency ward in the Mater public hospital. After explaining the situation to the nurse, my mother was taken inside for examination within 10 minutes. The doctor quickly reviewed her medical history and promptly examined her followed by running various tests. He then gave her oxygen and placed her on a heart monitor. After a couple of hours, a bed became available on which she was able to rest and go through a series of other tests throughout the night. The staff at the Mater was very helpful and friendly. They meticulously performed tests and examinations so that nothing was missed and ensured that she could be treated properly. She was released the next morning as she recovered and was in much better condition. To my surprise, the treatment didn’t just stop there. For the next 3 days a nurse regularly visited her at home, took blood samples, and enquired about her health. The results of these tests were sent to the doctor at the hospital who then advised her on her medication. I have never heard of such a service in Canada where she has to visit a lab on a weekly basis to get a blood test. In addition, the blood testing procedures used here were far superior to those in Canada. The nurse who visited her at home had a testing device that was similar to a diabetes testing device and gave results right away. In Canada, the labs do a traditional blood test which involves extracting blood with a needle. This sample is then processed by lab and the results take a couple of days before getting to the doctor who may then advise the patient on their medication.

I hear that the problem with the medical system in Ireland is more about getting into the system than the actual service. If you have a non-critical issue then you may end up waiting in the emergency for hours before getting any treatment. I think that this is quite similar to what other countries have in place and in a way it is not too bad because many people come to the emergency with trivial issues that unnecessarily take up time and resources.

I always hear negative things about the Irish medical system but it turned out to be fantastic in my case. A few days ago we got a call from one of the nurses from the hospital who enquired about my mother’s health now that she’s back in Canada. I am shocked at the level of personal service and owe gratitude to the staff at the Mater hospital. After arriving backing Canada, my mother did receive a nominal charge of 380 Euros for the excellent treatment that she received on Dublin but that was covered by her travel insurance. May be the situation with the Irish medial system isn’t as bad as the media makes it out to be though they may be comparing the system with other European countries like Germany and Sweden where the system is reportedly much better.