Telemedicine is only worth trusting if it’s held to the same standard as the GP surgery down the road, not a watered-down version of it. This page sets out, plainly and without the usual corporate padding, who treats you on DrOnline247.ie, where a video or phone consultation reaches its limits, how decisions about prescriptions and certificates actually get made, and roughly how your health information is looked after.
For life-threatening emergencies in Ireland, call 999 or 112. Do not wait for an online appointment.
Complete the secure booking form below — same appointment flow as our main booking page. Fee is shown before you pay.
The doctor, not an app, makes the decision
Every consultation on DrOnline247.ie is carried out by a doctor registered with the Irish Medical Council and entitled to practise in this country. That’s not a small-print detail; it’s the whole basis for everything else said on this page. IMC registration means a doctor has met the training and conduct standards required to practise here, and remains accountable to the same professional body as any GP in a bricks-and-mortar surgery.
No chatbot, triage algorithm or automated tool makes a clinical decision about your care at any point in this process. Our GPs come from general practice backgrounds and are expected to apply their own judgement to your specific situation on every single call, whether that call runs by video, by phone, or, for that matter, across a desk in a surgery. The format changes; the standard behind the decision doesn’t.
What a video call can’t do, said plainly
A lot of everyday GP work genuinely translates well to video or phone: a proper history, a look at a rash or a sore patch of skin, a medication review, a conversation about test results, a sensible plan you can act on. None of that needs a stethoscope.
What a screen can’t do is replace a physical examination where one is actually required — listening to a chest, feeling for a specific sign, carrying out a procedure. Our GPs are trained to spot that quickly and say so without hedging, rather than attempt an assessment the format isn’t built for. When that happens, you’ll be pointed towards whichever in-person option fits — your own practice, an out-of-hours service, or an emergency department.
This is also why the same line appears everywhere on this site: a genuine emergency should never wait for an online slot. Chest pain, serious breathing difficulty, heavy bleeding, loss of consciousness, signs of a stroke — call 999 or 112, or get to your nearest emergency department. Please don’t open our booking page for any of that.
A prescription is a judgement, not a reward for booking
People sometimes ask, understandably, whether booking guarantees a prescription or a sick note. It doesn’t, and any service implying otherwise isn’t being straight with you. Prescribing and certifying are clinical decisions, made by the GP during your call based on what they find, your history, and their own professional judgement of what’s actually safe for you.
Plenty of the time — stable, ongoing medication, a straightforward short illness — that decision lands in your favour the same day. Other times the GP will suggest something different: more information, a short review period, or an in-person look. Our doctors are backed to use their own judgement on every booking, without pressure to prescribe simply because an expectation was set before the call even started.
Where a prescription is issued, it goes electronically to a chemist of your choosing, same as standard practice anywhere else in Ireland. Controlled or higher-risk medications get extra caution, and in a lot of cases simply aren’t suitable for remote prescribing at all — your GP will explain if that applies to you.
Your information, handled the way it should be
Health information is sensitive by nature, so it gets treated that way. Consultation notes, prescriptions and certificates are stored securely, accessed only by whoever’s actually involved in your care, and handled in line with Irish and EU data protection law, including GDPR. Video and phone calls run over encrypted connections, not an ordinary consumer messaging app.
Your medical information doesn’t get used for marketing, and it doesn’t get sold on. For the full detail on what’s collected, how long it’s kept, and your rights over it — including requesting a copy of your own records — our policies page covers data protection properly, in full.
Working alongside the system you already know
DrOnline247.ie isn’t trying to operate separately from the rest of Irish healthcare, and we don’t want to give that impression. Our GPs treat a remote consultation as one point of contact within a much bigger system — your own registered practice, HSE primary care, out-of-hours GP cooperatives, hospital emergency departments. Where continuity actually matters, say with a condition your usual GP is already managing, we’ll generally encourage you to keep that relationship central and use our consultation summary as a bridge back to it.
That matters most for referrals. If a GP here thinks you need a specialist, bloods, imaging or an in-person assessment, we don’t run our own hospital network — the sensible next step is almost always your own practice, a HSE service, or an emergency department depending on urgency. We’d rather be clear about where our role ends than pretend we can manage every outcome ourselves.
Who stands behind it, and keeping an eye on quality
DrOnline247.ie is owned and operated by One Tech and AI, which carries accountability for the platform’s standards, policies and the governance described on this page. That ownership doesn’t touch the clinical independence of the GPs treating you — it just means there’s a clear, answerable organisation behind the platform itself.
Clinical standards, prescribing patterns and patient feedback get reviewed on an ongoing basis rather than checked once and left alone. Where a pattern suggests something could be done better — clearer pre-consultation questions, tighter guidance for a particular type of case — we act on it. If you ever have a concern about care you received, or how the service ran, our policies page explains how to raise it, and every concern gets looked at properly.
Why we won’t promise more than remote care can deliver
It would be easy to write a slicker version of this page — one that implied an online GP can handle more or less anything a surgery visit can, prescriptions included, no questions asked. We’ve chosen not to, because overselling what a video or phone call can achieve eventually costs a patient something: a delayed diagnosis, a prescription that wasn’t actually appropriate, or simply false confidence in a situation that needed a closer look. Clinical governance, as we understand it, is as much about the things we deliberately don’t offer as the things we do.
That’s the thinking behind every limit described on this page: the insistence on IMC registration, the honesty about when a physical examination is required, the refusal to guarantee prescriptions in advance, the plain emergency guidance repeated across the site rather than tucked into one disclaimer. None of it is there to slow you down for its own sake. It’s there so that when a GP on DrOnline247.ie tells you something is or isn’t suitable for remote care, you can actually trust that judgement, because it isn’t being shaped by a wish to say yes to every booking that comes in.
Often suitable for online review
Assessment and advice for common, non-emergency conditions
Reviewing and renewing stable, ongoing medication
Sick notes and certificates, where clinically appropriate
Talking through test results and planning next steps
Honest guidance on whether in-person or emergency care is needed
Not for online booking
Chest pain, stroke symptoms or serious breathing difficulty
Heavy bleeding, major trauma or a suspected fracture
Loss of consciousness, a seizure or sudden confusion
Certain controlled or higher-risk medications
Anything needing an immediate physical examination or procedure
Care you can actually check up on
Every consultation on DrOnline247.ie is carried out by an IMC-registered GP using their own clinical judgement on your situation.
Are the doctors actually registered to practise in Ireland?
Yes. Every GP on DrOnline247.ie is registered with the Irish Medical Council and entitled to practise medicine here, to the same standard as any GP surgery.
Am I guaranteed a prescription or sick note if I book?
No. Prescriptions and certificates are issued only where the GP judges them clinically appropriate after actually assessing you — the same way an in-person GP would decide.
What should I do in an actual emergency?
Call 999 or 112, or go straight to your nearest emergency department. Don’t use this site or wait on an online slot if someone may be having a medical emergency.
What if my concern needs an in-person examination?
Your GP will tell you plainly and help you work out the right next step — your own practice, an out-of-hours service, or an emergency department, depending on how urgent it is.
How is my data actually protected?
Consultations run on encrypted connections, and records are stored and accessed in line with Irish and EU data protection law, including GDPR. Full detail is on our policies page.
Who owns DrOnline247.ie?
DrOnline247.ie is owned and operated by One Tech and AI, which is accountable for the platform’s standards and governance, while clinical decisions remain the independent responsibility of the treating GP.
Medical Emergencies
For Urgent Medical Care Or in Life Threatening Emergencies call 999 or 112 immediately.