Home Visits

Wherever possible we encourage patients to attend the surgery as most likely you will be seen faster than waiting at home and with more medical equipment and medication to hand for use if necessary.

If, however, you cannot attend the practice and need a doctor to call to your home, a visit may be arranged by phoning our reception before 10am and outlining the problem so that details can be passed on to the medical staff.

In the event that a house call cannot be attended to by one of our doctors an outside agency of doctors (Doctor on Duty) will be sent.

When is a home visit 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 chest pain. The best approach is to call an emergency 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. 

When a GP visit may be useful 

Following a conversation with a health professional, it may be agreed that a seriously ill patient may be helped by a GP's visit.

When a GP visit is recommended 

Home visiting makes clinical sense and is the best way of giving medical opinion, in cases involving: 

• The terminally ill. 
• The truly housebound patient for whom travel to premises would cause deterioration in their medical condition.