Booking a Home Visit

Please phone 01752 842281 and choose OPTION 3 between 08:30 and 10:00 unless it is an emergency.

Home visits are really only for the housebound and seriously ill. Seeing a patient at the surgery has the advantage of better examination arrangements and treatment facilities.

We are able to see a greater number of patients at the surgery in the time it takes to do a visit so it is a much more efficient use of time. If you cannot manage the trip under your own steam there is usually someone around with a car who can help you, a taxi is an alternative.

Please give as much detail of the problem to the practice nurse or receptionist who will take your call before passing the information on to the doctor. The doctor will then decide whether a visit is necessary and make the appropriate arrangements.

Benefits for patients seen at the surgery

We have specialist non-portable medical equipment, good lighting and examination facilities with excellent allied staff to give patients a higher quality of care than can be offered at a home.

Patients are likely to be seen quicker and so treatments can be commenced sooner and can have a face-to-face consultation rather than telephone consultation.
We offer assessment clinic appointments at the health centre daily which may go some way to help you to attend an appointment.

Home Visit Policy

This policy takes into consideration the rising demands on general practice and reflects our efforts to maintain safe, high quality care for all of our registered patients.

Our home visiting policy is based on RCGP guidelines:

• You cannot insist that a GP visits you at home.
• General practice is not and has never been an emergency service.
• This is provided by the paramedic service, contactable on 999.
• Delaying assessment, to wait for a home visit, may delay treatment and so affect long term health outcomes.

GPs having to visit inappropriate house call patients are delayed from visiting those patients who are in genuine need of a visit and therefore this poses an unacceptable clinical risk. Only patients who are terminally ill or truly bed bound will normally be granted a home visit. All other patients are expected to attend the surgery.

Patients with common problems such as:

• Abdominal pain
• Cough
• Flu
• Back pain
• General malaise
• Having abnormal test results

are readily transportable by car either by friends, relatives or by taxi. It is not the doctor’s responsibility to arrange transport.

GPs are not responsible for ensuring that a patient has financial means to attend the surgery nor that the patient chooses to register with a practice that is difficult for them to get to in bad weather or without a car.