I started going here because it was convenient - close to home and recommended by half the staff at google who work basically upstairs. i really enjoyed the original doctor i used to see there, but i heard she left to go travel the world or something. (enjoyed as in thought she was a good doctor with a great personality and attentive and helpful; not in some other perverted way!) the guy who replaced her, Dr. Karagiannis (had to look that one up. heh.), is also really good. i have a long history of weird, undiagnosable health issues and a long string of horrible, useless doctors. so when i went in to see Dr. K, i had a small list of issues i wanted to have addressed. i went in and said "i hope you have a bit of time cuz i have a bit of a list" :)
it was cool because he didn't cringe and run away, but actually sat down and listened to problem after complaint after malady without rolling his eyes or dismissing me. he was happy to order a full panel of blood tests and discuss what they were all for - he even included a test for thyroid antibodies which is a notoriously difficult test to get a doctor to agree to do apparently. and once we were done with all that, he asked me again to look over my list to make sure i didn't miss anything. and even at the end when i reluctantly brought up an expired prescription for anxiety meds that i'd had before i moved here from the states (for the odd bout of insomnia), he happily offered to refill it without sending me through the long ugly process of getting re-evaluated by a head doctor over here. i was pleasantly surprised and happy when i left the office. when the blood tests came in, he didn't just have his assistant call me to tell me what was up, he actually had me come back in to discuss them.
now i don't know if this sort of thing is normal in ireland, but compared to my 30 second wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am visits to GPs over in the states, all of my experiences going to the doctors at Barrow Medical have been fantastic. they make me feel like a human being and not a walking bag of symptoms to be medicated and sent away. i appreciate that. and hopefully you will too :) read more