Private medical consultation - €250!!

tomdublin said:
Yes but the public paid for your education.
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And if the OP wanted to go the public route, she could go that route and wait 3 years. But she wants to go private and is therefore paying a private business. She is paying for an expert in their field, someone who has spent 15+ years to get to the level that they are at. They are going to be expensive, all experts are, no matter what area you are talking about.

Do you also say to guards "I pay your wages"
 
SBarrett said:
And if the OP wanted to go the public route, she could go that route and wait 3 years. But she wants to go private and is therefore paying a private business.
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What certain posters with, what I believe are very right wing views, fail to understand is that the OP does necessarily not want to go private...…...she wants her health concern addressed in a timely manner and so was compelled to go private.
 
What's really shocking is to hear that Publicly employed Consultants in Public Hospitals can high handedly declare they're not taking any new patients!!
I thought the whole point of a public health system was that it was for everyone (albeit with waiting lists) ....
 
If the consultant helps to cure an illness or detects cancer etc or gets you into hospital quickly then the money is well spent, not a lot in the scheme of things and soon forgotten. I know its tough shelling out 250e but your health is priceless.
 
deanpark said:
If the consultant helps to cure an illness or detects cancer etc or gets you into hospital quickly then the money is well spent, not a lot in the scheme of things and soon forgotten. I know its tough shelling out 250e but your health is priceless.
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Unfortunately that's the truth, I was given a public consultation date for a problem and had I not gone private I'd be dead, it was cancer.
 

They don't. In the public system, a consultant just sees the patients on the list. They can literally walk from room to room all day seeing the next patient on their list. If someone told the OP that they aren't taking on any new patients, it was someone else in the hospital and not the consultant. I would have no idea why this other person would tell someone they are not taking new patients and not just put them on a very long waiting list.
 
I have experience of two well-known hospital consultants.

One of them told me their public list was "closed" and it would be €400 to attend their private clinic. Instead I was publicly referred by another consultant in the same hospital and had an appointment within 3 weeks.

The other was specialising in a niche area and was getting lots of private patients at €200 a time. They then increased the fee to €400 , for patients who largely were vulnerable and had little funds due to longterm illness.
They ask for the cash upfront in the consultation, taking out their wallet to put it in.

Their ethics, or lack thereof, are highly questionable.
 
RTE's Primetime Investigates broadcast an episode which trailed hospital consultants over a three month period to ascertain whether they were doing their contracted 39 HSE hours per week.

None of them were and there was one who did an average of 13 hours a week despite being paid for 39. This is straightforward theft and they should be criminally prosecuted but it will never happen.

The main problem is hospital consultants have no line manager and are directly contracted to the HSE making them accountable to nobody.

Hence the arrogant preening God-complex that many of them have.
 
They do - I was told the public list was closed verbatim by the consultant
 
If the above is true and there's nothing to say it isn't, i'd love to know how anyone, political or other is going to tackle it. It will take an actual consultant to come out and declare publicly what's going on and that it has to stop. Will that happen? You must be joking, sadly. Do consultanbts run the health service we have? Maybe they do.
 
When you claim tax back you will have to deduct the €80 you got from health insurance - so you will get a refund at whatever rate of tax you pay on €170.00
 
It is true.

This is why public waiting lists are so long.

It'll never be addressed-most of society are afraid of consultants including politicians, who also live in the same leafy areas and mix in the same social circles.

Their private practice is a valuable source of income for the hospitals they're based in so they're complicit in the wholescale theft of public money.

The consultants I referenced both have lucrative private practices and all appointments are within the working day, not evenings and weekends. They are contracted for 39 hours to the HSE and do not work nights.

There was a slew of calls to Liveline by public patients who have been on waiting lists for years the day after the programme was broadcast. The completely out of character muted response from the presenter was astounding.
If it had've been rogue tradesmen fixing roofs there would've been the usual populist hyperbole with name calling like "gurriers".

But when it's embedded dereliction of duty, discommoding of the public and theft of taxpayers money by "pillars of society" there's no comment.

And yes they do run the health service.
 
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You have to remember that consultants are allowed to carry out their private work in hospitals so saying they're robbing taxpayers money is wrong, as is dereliction of duty. Politicians I know do not live in the same leafy suburbs either and most have only enough to get by on like an awful lot more. I'm not by any means running down consultants but we simply need more of them. I was out of circulation for quite a while over the past 6/7 months and wouldn't be on this earth only for the skill of the said consultants and owe them my life. Are they in a privileged position? Yes, they certainly are but would I ,or, could I do what they do? No way . I had private health insurance and make no apology for having it. I don't drink, don't smoke and imagine one of them alone could pay for that insurance. It's my choice to do this, others who think it expensive might need to remember this.
 
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noproblem said:
You have to remember that consultants are allowed to carry out their private work in hospitals so saying they're robbing taxpayers money is wrong, as is dereliction of duty.
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No it's not wrong - this is obviously said in the context of them working less than their contracted public hours.

That is robbing and that is dereliction of duty.

Read my posts
 
ATC110 said:
No it's not wrong - this is obviously said in the context of them working less than their contracted public hours.

That is robbing and that is dereliction of duty.

Read my posts
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If you say so and can show them not fulfilling their hours. In any case, it's getting away from the original posts concern
 
Gordon Gekko said:
It didn’t really. The cost was covered many times over by taxes.

And the State now takes 52-55% of every incremental €250 from every high-earner.

Joe Public does very well from high earners.
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That's assuming payment was by cheque / card. Many seem to prefer cash for some strange reason.
Heres hoping Irish people insist on paying by card to force tax cheats to pay their PAYE dues. So please use your cards/ phones for payment.
 
Reactions: jan
Complain to Joe Duffy. Then again, compared to Joe, a highly trained consultant doctor wages are a bargain
 
fidelcastro said:
That's assuming payment was by cheque / card. Many seem to prefer cash for some strange reason.
Heres hoping Irish people insist on paying by card to force tax cheats to pay their PAYE dues. So please use your cards/ phones for payment.
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I have never paid a consultant in cash or been asked to do so.
 
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