If you are not well enough to come to the surgery you can ask for a home visit. Please telephone before 11.00am.
In general, we ask that patients only request a home visit if they are genuinely housebound and too unwell to come to the surgery. The computerised records and some pieces of medical equipment which are helpful in modern general practice are only available at the surgery. In addition, your doctor can usually see several patients at the surgery in the time that it takes to make a single house call.
Your doctor may contact you by telephone prior to visiting, which will usually be after morning surgery but may be at any time throughout the day.Babies and children can usually be safely brought up to the surgery and this will often mean they will be seen earlier. This includes those who may be infectious, who can be accommodated in a side room. If you are not sure please phone for advice.
Examples where a home visit is unlikely to be necessary
In most of these cases a visit would not be an appropriate use of your GP’s time or best for you:
- Heart attack – severe crushing chest pain. The best approach is to call an emergency paramedic ambulance
- Extreme shortness of breath. The best approach is to call an emergency paramedic ambulance
- 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, to the surgery. It is not harmful to take a child with fever outside
- Adults with common problems, such as cough, sore throat, influenza, general malaise, back pain and abdominal pain are also readily transportable to the doctor’s surgery. Transport arrangements are the responsibility of the patients or their carers