Home Visits

Visit recommended

We believe home visiting makes clinical sense and is the best way of giving a medical opinion in cases involving:-

•          The terminally ill
•          The truly housebound for whom travel to the surgery by car would cause a deterioration in their medical condition or unacceptable discomfort.

After an initial assessment over the telephone a seriously ill patient may be helped by a GP’s attendance. However the GP may advise the patient, or person with the patient, to ring 999 to receive the appropriate immediate care.

Examples of such situations are:-

•          Heart attack
•          Severe shortness of breath
•          Severe haemorrhage

Visit is not usual

In most of the following cases, to visit would not be an appropriate use of a GP’s time:-

• Common symptoms of childhood (fevers, cold, cough, earache, headache, diarrhoea/vomiting and most cases of abdominal pain). These patients are usually well enough to travel by car. It is not necessarily harmful to take a child with a fever outside. These children may not be fit to travel by ‘bus or to walk, but car transport may be available from friends, relatives or taxi firms.

  It is not a doctor’s responsibility to arrange such transport.

• Adults with common problems (such as cough, sore throat, influenza, back pain and abdominal pain) are also readily transportable by car to a doctor’s premises.
• Common problems in the elderly (such as mobility problems, joint pain and general malaise) would also best be treated by consultation at a doctor’s premises.