If possible please try to telephone reception before 10am if you require a home visit.
A doctor or nurse may phone you back as it may be that your problem can be dealt with by telephone advice, or that it would be more appropriate to send a nurse, or indeed arrange a hospital attendance.
House visits are only available for patients who are housebound because of illness or disability.
Please remember that several patients can be seen in the practice in the time that it takes to make one home visit.
There are also better facilities for examining and treating patients at the surgery.
A home visit by a GP is appropriate where a patient is either terminally ill or bed bound – when travel by a car could cause a deterioration in the medical condition or unacceptable discomfort.
Situations where home visits are not deemed necessary:
- Symptoms of fever, cold, cough, sore throat, flu, back pain, earache, headache, diarrhoea/vomiting and most cases of abdominal pain. These patients are well enough to be brought to the surgery by car.
- Children with a temperature are not at further risk from going outdoors. They may not be well enough to walk or travel by bus but car transport would be acceptable.
- Common problems in the elderly such as poor mobility, joint pain and generally feeling ill would also be best treated at the surgery where we have more resources. The exception to this is if the patient is bed bound.
- The doctor should not be expected to spend time on a visit due to transport difficulties. Please ask for the help of friends or neighbours or consider the use of a taxi service.