Patients are requested, where possible, to telephone before 10am if a home visit is required that day.
The duty doctor will then call you to obtain more details and will decide:
- if the home visit is necessary
- or if a telephone consultation is medically appropriate
We would request that, apart from the genuinely housebound, all other patients attend the surgery rather than request a home visit because of the extra time home visiting takes. On average four to five patients can be seen in surgery in the time it takes to do a single home visit.
In addition, we feel that in many situations you are best seen in the surgery as the doctor has better facilities for examinations and access to all medical records.
Please note: ultimately it is the doctors decision whether or not a visit is appropriate.