portlaoise. advise re consultants & public v private

Can any of you ladies who are attending or have previously attended portlaoise offer me advise. can i choose which consultant i want to see, and if so who do you recommend, or more important who do you not recommend. Also i need advise re going public, semi private or private. I have health insurance but not sure about how we will be fixed in paying out a couple of thousand euro next year, for this reason i'm thinking of going semi private. does anyone know the costs involved for this option. I am now in my 5th week and have yet to see my gp and get referal, are waiting times for first apt long and does level of cover influence this. Thanks for your help.

Hi there, There are 3 consultants in Portlaoise, Mr. Hosam, Dr. Miriam Doyle and Dr. Corristine. I went private to Hosam and was very happy with him. I know a few people who have good things to say about Dr. Doyle. I've never really heard much about Corristine. Portlaoise don't do semi-private so its either public or private for you. Privately, Hosam is now charging €2800 and I think Dr. Doyle is charging €2300. As far as I know you can just choose who you want and ring their secretary to make your first appt. Privately your first scan will be at about 12 weeks or could be earlier. Publicly I think your first scan could be around 16-18 weeks. I don't know much about the public system but I'm sure someone else will reply. If you do a search on here you'll find some threads on this. Good luck with your decision.