GP Services

Antenatal Care

Combined Care for Antenatal

This means that you can share your antenatal and postnatal care between your GP and your chosen maternity hospital. This option is commonly known as Shared Care or Combined Care.

This entitles you to six antenatal visits and two postnatal visits, and attend your maternity hospital for six antenatal visits. Under this scheme we deal with all pregnancy related problems free of charge .
If you wish to avail of the scheme, application forms are available at the clinic, which you can complete at your first visit. If you are unsure whether you would like to avail of the Combined Care programme your first visit will be charged for.

The benefits of this service is that you can attend your GP with whom you are already familiar and also schedule appointments at times which suits you best.

We recommend that you should make an appointment as soon as you discover you are pregnant. We will then refer you to your local maternity hospital where you will be seen before 20 weeks for assessment, blood tests and a scan.

HSE Antenatal Guidelines 2012

• The Doctor that you signed up with at your first visit to establish pregnancy is the Doctor that will look after you for all antenatal visits
• Appointments cannot be made with any other GP for antenatal unless it is an emergency. However please note there will a charge.
• Antenatal appointments can only be made between 9am and 6pm Monday to Friday
• Appointments cannot be made for evening surgery or for Saturdays
• Please make sure you book your appointment well in advance so to ensure availability of your GP. A schedule of visits is provided to help you with this.
• Please state the appointment is for antenatal when booking with reception
• Please bring a clean catch mid stream urine sample with you to your appointment. This is best done at home to ensure no contamination
• You are entitled to 6 visits in total for your 1st pregnancy and 7 for your 2nd and subsequent pregnancies. You are also entitled to one 2wk check for baby and one 6 week check for yourself and baby
• For certain medical conditions related to pregnancy an additional visit may be covered by the Health Board. We will always attempt to apply for this on your behalf but if they refuse to pay you will be liable for any extra visits incurred.
• All visits unrelated to your pregnancy are charged at normal consultation fee of €65

Schedule of Visits for Combined Care