Home Visits
Whilst we encourage our patients to come to the surgery, where we have the proper equipment and facilities available, we do appreciate this is not always possible. In this respect, if you do need a home visit, you can help us by calling reception between 08:00 - 10:00.
You may only request a home visit if you are housebound or are too ill to visit the practice. Your GP will only visit you at home if they think that your medical condition requires it and will also decide how urgently a visit is needed. Please bear this in mind and be prepared to provide suitable details to enable the doctor to schedule house calls.
You can also be visited at home by a community nurse if you are referred by your GP. You should also be visited at home by a health visitor if you have recently had a baby or if you are newly registered with a GP and have a child under five years.
A message from your doctor
Home visits are much more time consuming than seeing a patient at the surgery and many of these visits are for very minor ailments - perhaps a sore throat, earache or a bleeding finger - when there is often very little your doctor can do that you could not do yourself.
There are four things you can do to help your family doctor provide the best kind of health care for you and your family - and be there when you most need help.
Check you know how our out-of-hours system works.
Ask yourself if it can safely wait until morning or Monday. Minor illnesses rarely need urgent treatment. If though you feel it may not be safe to wait, or you are not sure, then ring out-of-hours number 111. Sometimes advice on the phone might be all you need. If you need medical care the doctor will discuss with you when and where you will receive it.
Try to get to the surgery during normal surgery hours. If you are to unwell to travel to your surgery, you can phone your surgery and ask for a home visit. Contact the surgery as early as you can after opening so that your doctors can plan their visits. But, if at all possible try to make an appointment to visit at the surgery where facilities and equipment allow a much better examination. A doctor can also see several patients in the same time it takes to make one home visit.
Keep advice on minor ailments handy. You can obtain a free copy of 'The NHS Home Healthcare Guide' at the surgery. There is much information and literature available at the surgery which you are welcome to collect and use for reference in your home. There are also medicines available at your local pharmacy that may help you. Most people can be very good at treating minor illnesses and can recognise when a doctor is really needed. You can work very well in partnership with your doctor to look after your own and your family's health. This helps build a better family doctor's service as it means your doctor has more time to spend on ill patients - perhaps you.