I've a damn fine doctor, most of us do. Satisfaction ratings run well over 80%. But there's not enough. The Irish density of GPs is 40% lower than the UK. The current rate of inflow at 150 new docs per year can't even offset retirements and cope with population growth and aging that's driving up demand for health services. Until that changes, by ramping up the inflow to at least 250 new faces per year, visiting the doc in ten years time will be just as expensive as it is today. But that masks other issues, which makes the market unfair for consumers;

• 50% of GPs don't bother displaying their prices even within their own premises. Reason - they don't have to.
• The IMO, the trade organisation representing Ireland's army of self employed docs wants to get exempted from Competition law so that it can engage in price fixing with its members biggest customer – the HSE. But the IMO maintains no position on price display for us poor mugs. Funny that. Go figure
• You can't really get into the game without a GMS contract from the HSE but in awarding new contracts existing GP practices are given double scores versus new GPs in the award system.
• And, you'll love this, existing practices are consulted to see if a new GMS contract would affect their “viability”. Wouldn't we all like to have a say on new local competitors, but we can't – its offensive to competition law.

Until the Government tackles both the underlying mismatch between us and the number of GPs available and acts to remove these competitive restrictions, you can whistle Dixie for lower GP visit fees. Meanwhile damn fine doctors will be run off their feet trying to stem the tide of demand upon them, while others sit back and plunder the market for all its worth. It's enough to make you sick!