Domhnall MacAuley looks with some envy at his counterparts in the South: the Andersonstown GP feels that while he and his colleagues are "immersed in reams of paperwork", family doctors south of the Border have more time to spend with their patients.

But from the patient perspective, Dr MacAuley believes that patients in Northern Ireland get a better deal than those in the Republic.

"If you are a public patient in the South you really don't get a great deal," he says. "Taking a global view, I think patients in Northern Ireland do very well."

Certainly for years general practitioners in the South have looked with envy at Northern GPs' lovely new practices, surgery staff and the range of ancillary services on offer to patients. Dr MacAuley points out that no Northern patient has to pay to visit the doctor and that there is a flat rate prescription charge of £5.80, regardless of the cost of the drug prescribed. Many people are exempt from this charge.

Generally, GP surgeries in the larger urban areas in the North offer services such as physiotherapy, counselling, chiropody, antenatal clinics and pharmacists to provide advice to the doctors on what drugs to prescribe. Dr MacAuley's own surgery - he shares a practice with four doctors; between them they have 8,000 patients - also employs someone to research the needs of patients, examining issues such as suicide and premature babies.

He says the fund-holding structure, where surgeries are given an annual budget to "buy" hospital and other services, has moved the "balance of power" from consultants to GPs. If doctors in a surgery are unhappy with the time their patients have to spend on waiting lists or the treatment they receive in a hospital, the doctors may threaten to purchase the services from another hospital. "The patients are now willing to move as well if they know they will be treated sooner."

However, on the down side, he says, doctors are spending too long negotiating with hospitals and ensuring paper work is kept up to date. His Hillhead Family Practice employs 20 staff, including a "fund-holding team" which keeps track of what hospitals people have been referred to, how long they have to wait and how much of the budget has been spent.

"But I don't knock what doctors are doing in the South. They have a lot more time with patients for individual consultations. I feel they are under less pressure . . . but then again the grass is always greener on the other side."

Dr Emer Loughrey, who has experienced life as a family doctor on both sides of the Border, agrees. She worked for five years as a rural GP in Drumquin, Co Tyrone before moving to Dublin in 1995. She now shares premises and staff with another doctor in Inchicore in Dublin.

"I do think that patients down here get a more personal service. However, they do not have access to the same services. If they need something else other than a doctor, it is not so easy."

She says physiotherapy, counselling and other services can be very difficult to obtain and expensive for patients. "I have access to physiotherapy for my patients in St James's Hospital but I have no access to a dietician. I have to send someone to hospital out-patients."

Dr Loughrey also sees how difficult it is for mid-income earners in the Republic to pay for health care. "For those people a little bit above the cut-off point for a medical card, it does seem very unfair that it should be all or nothing."

When she moved to the Republic, she was struck by how poor the support system for elderly people and those with disabilities is. "These services are much better funded in the North. Social welfare payments are much more generous."

Preventative medicine in the North is more common and better organised. For women receiving cervical screening, she says, results of tests come through in weeks in the North: in the South, it can take months.

However, she expresses concern that fund-holding in large group practices has created a two-tier system in the North. Patients of doctors outside such practices do not have access to the same services or "buying power".

From a GP's point of view, Dr Loughrey believes it is easier to "turn a pound in the North". Doctors may also take advantage of an "almost interest-free loan" to buy a practice, although there are similar government grants available in the Republic.

However, she says, it is an "exciting time" for general practice in the South and doctors are generally enthusiastic and hard working.