Broadband runaround: For six months, Eir left this GP practice without proper coverage

We are used to hearing from readers who have been given the runaround by telecoms companies but even we were surprised to learn of the hoops Eir made a medical practice in west Dublin jump through.

It must have been particularly galling for the practice in question because all they wanted was the capacity to get online and do their jobs in a fashion that did not see doctors, nurses and admin staff leaning out windows looking for signal.

The practice was left on hold – literally and metaphorically – for months. Then one of the doctors decided to email Pricewatch.

“I sincerely hope you can help or at least publicise the seemingly impossible task of having fixed broadband installed,” begins the mail. “We are a GP clinic, with five doctors, two nurses and five additional staff, and we moved in in February 2024.”

The doctor says the HSE occupies 80 per cent of the building and, “when we moved in, Eir had already installed fibre to service their areas”.

However, no cables – neither copper nor fibre – had been pulled into the GP’s part off the building.

“We contacted Eir and then Vodafone, and both assured us that copper cables could be installed which would later be upgraded to Fibre.”

[ The death of customer service: Eir is not alone in letting its customers down ]

So far, so good.

The practice contacted Eir in December and Vodafone in early January, having been warned that the former might take a very long time to get the job done.

“Since then there have been at least 10, if not more, visits from Open Eir on behalf of Eir and Vodafone, and each time a technician comes, they say the same thing – that they can only connect internet once cables have been pulled through by Open Eir’s “heavy team” and to get back on to our provider regarding same, which we have done on many, many occasions,” writes our correspondent.

He stresses that there is “no structural work required – there is a chamber outside the front door of the building that already has fibre running through one duct and there is a separate duct ready to transit the cable for our clinic on to a waiting cable tray that brings it straight into our comms room. There is no digging, drilling or planning permission required.”

The practice waited six months before contacting Pricewatch.

In that time “the only internet we have operating in our beautiful new clinic is a wireless hub that we have to hang out the reception window (this is no exaggeration) in order to get signal, and our 12 staff members need to work on this inconsistent and unreliable connection”.

The absence of proper broadband has real consequences for the clinic.

“We have not been able to upgrade our phone lines to a VOIP service we have already paid for, and are stuck working off a mobile phone for incoming calls from patients,” he says.

It gets worse. “As soon as the window is closed in the evenings, nobody can log on remotely if emergency care/prescriptions etc need to be sent for a patient. There have been a number of close calls where prescriptions and referrals did not send due to the connection dropping, and we are constantly in fear of an inevitable significant clinical error. We have been apologising to our patients on an almost daily basis.”

The mail continues. “Against our better judgment, we were patient, observed the advice we were being given that installation can take 11-14 weeks (a damning statement in itself) and obediently waited,’ he writes. “On foot of recent media reports and due to increasing frustration, we requested reference numbers in order to submit ComReg complaints.”

[ Judge labels Eir a ‘disgrace’ after court heard customer service manuals warned staff not to obey law ]

Our reader is referring to a recent court case which saw Eir fined for its failings when it comes to customer care. In the course of that hearing it emerged that there were certain trigger words and phrases that could see complaints expedited. One of those trigger words was ComReg.

“Their tone certainly changed and we started receiving emails assuring us they were trying to deal with our query. Eir then replied that nothing would be completed before July 31st and Vodafone sent Open Eir again, who basically said that copper was never going to be installed at our location given that it was a new build and as a result, Vodafone got back to us and advised that they are not in a position to provide us with internet.

“We asked what the next steps were and, after us having been dealing with them, with hours spent on the phone, meeting Open Eir technicians on a number of occasions, they advised we should contact another provider. This is not acceptable. Why a purpose-built GP clinic covering a catchment area with significant social deprivation and enormous demand for healthcare can’t be connected to a fixed internet service is unfathomable,” the doctor writes.

The doctor concludes his mail by saying he is not confident that he could do “anything else other than wait for ComReg to get back to me to see if anything can be done on their end, but in the meantime I am ludicrously googling satellite internet provision for a brand new GP clinic. I can’t believe how much of a mess it is.”

The whole saga seems insane to us and, although it involves both Eir and Vodafone, the former seems more central to the story – particularly its Open Eir division – so that is the route we take.

A couple of days after we contact the company, we hear back from the doctor.

“Not sure if you have been in touch with Eir, and no pressure at all if not, but I just wanted to say that I arrived at work yesterday to find them (finally) pulling a cable in to the basement. We may finally become a functioning 21st-century business!”

We then hear from Eir. “Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention,” says a spokeswoman. “We have contacted the customer and apologised for the delay in installing a reliable broadband connection. We are actively working with the customer to find a suitable solution to meet their requirements. Our team is prioritising this installation to ensure it is completed as soon as possible.”