Home Visit Policy

Information for Patients

• Home visits are reserved for patients who are genuinely housebound and who do not leave the house for any reason. Including those in residential and nursing homes.
• We will visit only if the patient’s clinical condition prevents them from travelling to the surgery and they are deemed to have a medical condition that necessitates an urgent medical opinion.
• Age is not a criterion for a home visit, the criteria applies to both older and younger people.
• Home visits will not be undertaken for social / transport reasons.
• The clinician may suggest an alternative to visiting patient and offer an urgent appointment at the surgery if he/she feels that is more appropriate.

The surgery will follow these guidelines:

Please dial 999 in case of a genuine life threatening emergency. For lifethreatening emergencies, requesting a visit from a Clinician can delay lifesaving treatment.

Examples of such situations are:

• Suspected heart attack
• Severe shortness of breath
• Severe haemorrhage
• Suspected stroke
• Meningitis

Patients are therefore advised to ring the emergency services directly.

Clinician is likely to visit for these conditions:

Clinician home visiting makes clinical sense and is the best way of giving a medical opinion in cases involving:

• The terminally ill
• The truly bed-bound patient, for whom travel to premises by car would cause deterioration to their medical condition or unacceptable discomfort.

Clinician may visit for these conditions:

• Those who are not usually bed-bound but have a clinical condition that prevents them from being ambulatory.

Clinician will not usually visit for these conditions and circumstances and it is expected that the patient will attend the surgery to be seen.

• 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 by car. It is not harmful to take a child with a fever outside. These children may not be fit to travel by bus or walk, but car transport is available from friends, relatives or taxi firms.
• Adults with common problems, such as a cough, sore throat, influenza, back pain and abdominal pain, are also readily transportable by car to the surgery premises.
• Common problems in the elderly, such as poor mobility, joint pain and general malaise, would also best be treated by consultation at the surgery premises where the facilities are available for full  examination and investigations. The exception to this would be the truly bed-bound patient.

Please note the following

• The practice is not responsible for arranging transport to the surgery.
• We will not visit for convenience.
• Wherever possible patients requiring a consultation with a Clinician will be asked to attend the surgery.
• The surgery has the correct facilities for undertaking examinations. Clinicians' ability to properly assess and to treat a patient seen in their own home is often impaired by the non ideal clinical situation of  poor lighting, unhygienic conditions and such simple difficulties as soft beds,making it impossible to palpate abdomens correctly.
• In the surgery the Clinician undertaking the consultation has access to the full clinical record and access to support services such as Practice Nurses and therefore a consultation at the practice is better  quality with regard to governance issues.
• Home visits are not an efficient or effective use of pressurised Clinician time.
• If you request a home visit, you may initially receive a telephone consultation from the Clinician who will discuss your symptoms with you. You may be asked to attend the surgery as a result of this consultation if clinically appropriate. The Clinician will decide on the most suitable place and time for your condition to be assessed