If you are poorly and think you need an urgent same day visit, please call us before 10.00am on the day. All home visit requests will be medically assessed to check if a visit is appropriate. Always provide a current landline/mobile number so that the Doctor can contact you.
In cases of major injury or critical condition, it may be more appropriate to go directly to your local Hospital Accident & Emergency Department. If an Ambulance is required, dial 999.
Is a home visit the best choice?
We are keen to ensure that we make the best use of our clinical staff, allowing them to provide the most appropriate care to those most in need of it. For the vast majority of patients, attending an appointment at the Practice is the best option for them and for the Practice staff.
The need for a home visit is a clinical decision and will be made by the Triage Doctor taking the call.
Calling the doctor out unnecessarily takes the doctor away from patients who may have a greater clinical need. Most of the consultations during home visits could easily and safely be carried out in the surgery.
Please help us to help you and all of our patients
If we visit you at home and feel that your request was inappropriate, we may inform you so that you use our services more appropriately in the future. Please do not be offended, as we have a duty to use our resources effectively for the safety and benefit of all patients.
Appropriate
- Truly bedbound patients
- Patient would come to serious harm if moved
- Terminally ill patients
- Children, young people and anyone who is mobile
- No transport or money
- Social reasons or for convenience
Home visits have many disadvantages
- poor facilities
soft beds, poor lighting or lack of hygiene - inefficiency
the doctor could see four to six other equally needy patients in the same time - patient records
required to provide appropriate and safe care, are not immediately available - patient chaperones
required to be present for some examinations, are not always available - access to equipment
our surgery has modern diagnostic and treatment facilities not available in your home
GP home visits - myths and facts
| MYTH | It's my right to have a home visit. |
| FACT | Under the GP terms of service, it is actually up to the doctor to decide, in their reasonable opinion, where a consultation should take place. |
| MYTH | I should get a visit because I'm old. |
| FACT | Our clinical work does not judge based on age alone. |
| MYTH | I can't bring my child out in this weather. |
| FACT | No-one will be harmed by being wrapped up and brought in to the surgery. |
| MYTH | The doctor needs to check I'm ready to go into hospital. |
| FACT | Paramedics can provide initial lifesaving care, and patients will be cared for appropriately in emergency departments. |
| MYTH | I'm housebound. |
| FACT | Being housebound does not always prevent use of transport. |
| MYTH | Can't the GP just pop in to see me? |
| FACT | We have fully booked surgeries and cannot simply drop everything to visit people at home. |
Community Nurses
You can be visited at home by a community nurse if you are referred by your GP. You may also be visited at home by a health visitor if you have recently had a baby or if you are newly registered with a GP and have a child under five years.
