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Home Visits
Home visits are arranged on 210090. Please call before
10.30am so that our rounds can be planned and to make it easier to arrange for
your own Doctor to visit.
Visiting patients at home is an important role
for General Practitioners. Although not practiced in many parts of the world
including most of North America, British GPs recognize the value of seeing ill
patients in their homes, and the difficulty some disabled and unwell patients
have in traveling to their GP's surgery. However, a GP can see three or four
people in the surgery in the time taken to make one home visit, making it very
wasteful of time if a visit is not necessary and we would therefore request that
you come to the surgery if physically possible. Lack of transport does not make
a patient housebound and is not usually regarded as a justification for a visit.
The following text is from a Health Authority information leaflet: "Changes
to emergency GP services for patients in Cornwall & Isles of Scilly
Why do we need changes?
On 6 February 1995 the Department of Health made some important changes in the working arrangements of family doctors throughout the country. These changes are designed to improve the service that family doctors can offer to their patients, by helping them to cope with more and more demands on their time.
Night visiting by family doctors has always been intended for medical emergencies only, but over the years more and more patients have come to treat it as an extension of the day time service. The number of night visits every year by family doctors was under three quarters of a million ten years ago, but it is now over two million. In addition, there has been a considerable increase in the number of telephone calls for advice throughout the night.
The Department of Health has recognised that this is unreasonable and that it can only be damaging to both doctors and their patients. It has therefore changed the rules on night visits, and home visits in general, to make it clear that home visiting at any time is for emergencies only.
What are the changes?
The new rules mean that your family doctor now decides:
whether you need to be seen by a doctor, and if so
when you should be seen
where you should be seen
On the basis of what you tell your doctor about your medical condition your doctor may decide to give you advice by telephone, or to see you immediately at the surgery or at any other suitable place (such as a room in your Community Hospital). Usually, however, you will be asked to attend the next regular surgery. In very exceptional circumstances your doctor may decide to visit you in your own home, or to refer you direct to hospital.
Your family doctor will decide these things on the basis of what you say about your medical condition. The past, many patients have expected the doctor to take into account their social circumstances, such as child minding problems or lack of transport, as reasons for a home visit, so it is very important to understand that in future home visits will be for medical emergencies only
How do I benefit from these changes?
These changes are designed to benefit all patients. Seeing patients at the surgery or other suitable premises enables the family doctor to provide a better service:
The doctor can look at your medical notes, which may contain important information to help to indicate what is wrong.
There are many tests that the doctor can only do at the surgery or in the hospital.
The doctor may need to talk to other people about your problem, such as another doctor, or the practice nurse.
Coming to the surgery makes better use of the doctor's time, which means a quicker service
for everyone.
Next time you consider telephoning your doctor outside normal surgery hours please think carefully. Do you really need a doctor's help immediately or can it wait until the next regular surgery?
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