Home Visits are reserved for the following groups of patients:
- Terminally ill;
- Housebound;
- Patients who are severely ill in bed;
Please request visits before 11am whenever possible as this allows the Duty Doctor to assess the request for necessity and urgency so that it can be appropriately managed.
In some situations the Duty Doctor may arrange assessment by another member of the community team (Home visiting team/District nurse/neighbourhood team) .
The home visiting team clinician will directly input into the patients notes and notify the surgery of any follow up requirements; if there is an urgent need they will telephone the surgery to make a GP is aware of the patients’ needs.
The following ARE NOT valid reasons to perform a home visit:
Transport issues for the patient
It is not the GP practice responsibility to arrange transport, or to perform home visits because the patient has difficulty arranging transport. In these circumstances patients should seek transport help from relatives, friends, or taxi firms.
Childcare issues for a patient
If a patient has difficulty arranging for someone to care for their children whilst attending appointments, the patients are welcome to bring their children to the surgery.
Poor mobility
Whilst it is understood that having poor mobility is inconvenient and unpleasant, GP surgeries are designed to cater for patients with restricted mobility. If patients are able to attend appointments at other healthcare settings, then they should also be expected to attend appointments in GP surgeries.
An unwell child
It is in the best interest of the child to attend the surgery where they can be properly assessed and treated. The clinician can make a more informed clinical judgment when seeing the child in surgery. If a parent believes that the child is too unwell to travel to surgery, and is a medical emergency then it would be advisable for them to seek help from the emergency services by calling 999.
Residents of care home
Care home residents are no different to patients in their own homes. The need to visit should be based upon clinical need, not the availability of transport or staff to attend the surgery. It is the responsibility of care facilities to make transport available for residents so that they can get to medical and non-medical appointments. Routine visit requests for care homes can be requested however will be deferred until appropriate clinical resource available Please note that the Patient Choice Scheme will allow GP practices to register new patients who live outside the practice area, without any obligation to provide home visits or out of hours services when the patient is unable to attend their registered practice.