My village GP here in Wexford
We had already put in train our move to Wexford from New Zealand, for a mix of family and professional reasons, when we learnt that Wexford is something of a GP desert. I'm lucky that all my GPs since the 80s have been (like me) gay men. Haven't needed to "unpack" things nor have I had to "educate" them out of any active or passive queerphobia. And the care has been, with exceptions, really great. In the wider health systems? I've had to do a lot of self-advocacy and offered a lot of just-in-time "don't be a homohater" training to service providers. Rarely nurses, I gotta say. Nurses for the most part are just fucking awesome.
But I digress.
My kiwi GP sent me on my way with 3 months supply of all my medications, including PREP and DoxyPep. That allowed me to focus on a bunch of other things related to migration in the first couple of months. But when I was about start using my month 3 meds, my anxiety increased and I started to strategise about finding a GP.
I found two Wexford town GP practices that ostensibly provided queer health, but neither was taking new patients nor a waitlist. I decided to try our local village GP. When I explained we had moved into the village itself, and identify my (RIP) father-in-law as a former patient, the reception folks said they'd ask the doctor and to rink back the next afternoon. I did and she said yes. GP registration FTW! A few weeks later I booked an appointment for this week.
It was all very stressful and I didn't sleep well the night before. I went in doing a lot of mindfulness and being ready for a challenging conversation. Which didn't happen. I explained what PREP and DoxyPEP are and that those are sorted via the clinic in Dublin: she asked for the details in case she needs to refer anyone else! Mental health meds, no negativity either. A few hours later I was picking up all my drugs, which ended up costing just below the €80 maximum for any given month.
So it went much better than I feared. Now we just need to elect a government that genuinely will make SlainteCare happen ASAP. Paying for a GP still irks me.