How to Request a Home Visit

 

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If you require a home visit, please contact the surgery before 10.00am on the day that you require it. You will be visited between the hours of 10.00am and 2.00pm. Where possible the doctor who knows you best will visit you at home, but this is not guaranteed as visits are generally allocated considering geographical location and on call commitment.

Please do not request a visit if you are able to attend the surgery as your doctors time could be better spent seeing patients than being caught up in traffic. Please bear in mind that a home visit takes on average 5 times longer than seeing a patient in the surgery. We can also offer much better facilities at the surgery to help diagnosis and treat a problem than we can do on a home visit.

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Only request a home visit after 10am if it is an emergency as this will involve the doctor having to leave the surgery, thereby inconveniencing patients who have made appointments and who may have urgent medical problems.

 

Housebound Patients

A housebound patient is someone who, due to physical or psychological illness or restriction, is unable to leave their place of residence without considerable effort or assistance. If a patient is able to leave their place of residence with assistance from a family member, carer or friend, this is a reasonable expectation that you are able to attend the Practice.

Our agreed definition of housebound patients aims to ensure that our clinical team are providing clinical care in the home setting only when it is appropriate. It is acknowledged that an individual’s needs may change and therefore eligibility for a home visit should be reassessed on a regular basis.

An individual will not be eligible for a home visit if they are able to leave their home environment on their own or with minimal assistance to visit public or social recreational public services (including shopping, hairdressers, cafes etc).

Each patient’s eligibility for home visits will be individually determined by the clinician, based on the above definition and patients assessed as not meeting the criteria for housebound will be expected to attend a clinic or surgery setting. Individual circumstances will be monitored and where an individual and/or health care professional assesses that the patient’s needs have changed, the patient’s housebound status will be reviewed.