Online Doctor Ireland: How It Works, What It Costs and When to Use One
Getting a GP appointment in Ireland has become genuinely difficult in parts of the country, and "online doctor" is what people search when the surgery cannot see them until next week. It is a useful service for a specific set of problems and the wrong service for others. This guide sets out which is which.
What an online doctor actually is
Any doctor treating you in Ireland must be registered with the Irish Medical Council, whether they see you in a surgery or over a video link. There is no separate, lighter rulebook for telemedicine. The Medical Council's Guide to Professional Conduct and Ethics applies in full, and its telemedicine guidance is explicit that a remote consultation must meet the same standard of care as a face-to-face one. What changes is the setting — not the licence, not the record-keeping obligations, not the doctor's accountability.
In practice you get a scheduled video or phone appointment with a GP, usually the same day and often outside normal surgery hours. The doctor takes a history, asks the questions they would ask in the room, and then does whatever the consultation supports.
What an online consultation can do
Assess and advise
The largest part of general practice is history-taking and judgement, and both travel well over video. Coughs and chest symptoms, sore throats, urinary symptoms, skin complaints, digestive upsets, hay fever, migraine, contraception, mental health, medication questions, and "is this worth worrying about" — all of these are routinely handled remotely, with the doctor deciding when something needs to be seen.
Issue a prescription
Where treatment is appropriate, the doctor can send a prescription electronically to your pharmacy. What can and cannot be prescribed remotely has real limits, covered in what a doctor can and cannot prescribe online.
Issue a medical certificate
A certificate for an employer, school or college can be issued after a consultation and emailed to you. There is one certificate an online service cannot produce — the Department of Social Protection Certificate of Incapacity for Work used to claim Illness Benefit. The sick cert guide explains the difference.
Write a referral letter
If you need to see a specialist privately, a doctor can prepare a referral letter during the consultation. See how GP referral letters work in Ireland.
What an online consultation cannot do
It cannot examine you. A doctor cannot listen to your chest, palpate your abdomen, take your blood pressure, look in your ear or swab your throat over a video call. Where the diagnosis turns on examination, remote care can only take you as far as deciding that you need to be examined.
It cannot handle emergencies. Chest pain, difficulty breathing, stroke symptoms, severe bleeding, a serious head injury, sudden severe abdominal pain, a rash that does not fade under pressure with a fever — these are 112 or 999 calls or an emergency department visit, not an appointment for later today.
It is not the right home for complex or chronic disease management. Ongoing care for diabetes, heart disease, respiratory disease or serious mental illness belongs with a GP practice that holds your full record, does your bloods and knows your history. Remote consultation is a supplement to that, not a replacement for it.
And certain medicines are effectively off the table remotely — see the prescribing article linked above.
What it costs in Ireland
Private online GP consultations in Ireland generally sit between roughly €25 and €60, with weekend and out-of-hours appointments priced above weekday ones. A private in-person GP visit typically costs more, and certificates or referral letters are often charged separately on top. CareCall shows the fee for your chosen service and time slot before you confirm anything on the booking page.
If you hold a medical card or a GP visit card, GP consultations with a participating practice are covered and are the cheaper route. Private online services sit outside those schemes, so the card does not apply. Prescription medicines are separate again: the Drugs Payment Scheme caps what a household pays for approved medicines in a month regardless of how the prescription was issued.
How a CareCall appointment works
You choose a service — a video or phone consultation — and pick a time, including evenings and weekends. You answer some questions about your symptoms and history before the appointment, which means the doctor is not spending your consultation collecting basic facts. At the appointed time the doctor calls you, or the video link goes live.
After the consultation, anything the doctor issues — a prescription to your pharmacy, a certificate, a referral letter — is generated and emailed to you, and it also stays in your dashboard so you can download it again if HR or a pharmacy loses it. If the doctor concludes you need to be examined, they will tell you that instead, and that is a legitimate outcome of the appointment rather than a failure of it.
Is it safe?
The safeguards worth checking are the same ones the Medical Council expects: registered doctors identified by name and registration number, secure handling of your clinical information, clear records, and an obligation on a doctor who is not your usual GP to update your GP where continuity of care requires it. A service that will not tell you who your doctor is, or that promises documents before a consultation happens, is not meeting that standard.
When to choose online, and when not to
Online suits a short-term problem you can describe, where you mainly need assessment, a prescription or a document, and where waiting a week for a surgery appointment is the actual obstacle. It particularly suits evenings, weekends and being away from home.
Go in person when something needs examining, when the problem is long-running or getting worse, when you are managing a chronic condition, when a child is very young or very unwell, or when you simply do not feel right and cannot say why. And for anything in the emergency list above, do not book an appointment at all — call 112 or 999.
Common questions
Will my own GP be told?
Where continuity of care requires it, a doctor who is not your usual GP should update your GP about the consultation. This is a Medical Council expectation, not an optional courtesy.
Can I use an online doctor from abroad?
Prescriptions written by an Irish doctor are dispensed by Irish pharmacies, so an online Irish service is of limited use if you are outside the country and need medicine today. Advice and certificates are less location-bound, but tell the doctor where you actually are.
How quickly can I be seen?
CareCall runs appointments seven days a week including outside normal surgery hours, so same-day is usually achievable. Availability at a specific hour depends on the slots open when you book.
This article is general information about healthcare in Ireland, not medical advice, and it does not replace a consultation with a doctor who knows your history. Guidance and rates change — check gov.ie, citizensinformation.ie or the HSE for the current position. If you are seriously unwell, contact your GP, the out-of-hours service or 112/999.