House visits are only available for patients who are housebound because of illness or disability.

If possible please try to contact reception before 10:00 if you require a home visit.

A doctor or nurse may phone you back, as it may be that your problem can be dealt with by telephone advice or that it would be more appropriate to send a nurse, or indeed, arrange a hospital attendance.

Please remember that several patients can be seen in the practice in the time that it takes to make one home visit. There are also better facilities for examining and treating patients at the Practice.

Please let us know if you feel an urgent visit is necessary by calling the practice on 01298 24105.

Derby and Derbyshire LMC Home visiting Guideline June 2016

Registered as a Company Limited by Guarantee. Registered No. 6203380 Registered Office: Celtic House 3rd Floor, Friar Gate, Derby DE1 1NU

Situations where a Home Visit is most appropriate

There are cases where a Home Visit is obviously the most appropriate way to assess a patient.

These include:

• Terminally ill patients
• Bed bound patients

Situations where a visit may be appropriate

In other cases it may be appropriate to visit patients and should be at the clinician’s discretion. This may include acute worsening of a known condition (e.g. IECOPD where patient has a care plan including home treatment).

Situations where a visit is not usually required

In the vast majority of cases where a patient is usually mobile, with an illness not severe enough to require hospitalisation, they should be expected to attend surgery.

Visiting Children

Children are generally portable, they can be most accurately assessed in surgery and given emergency treatment if required.

Transport issues

It may sound unkind, but it is not the responsibility of the NHS to arrange transport. Lack of transport, or funds for the use of transport are not an indication for a home visit.

Until such time as there is a different and separately commissioned service, home visits should be reserved for those patients who are terminally ill and / or bed bound.

A good benchmark is ‘would the patient reasonably be expected to attend a hospital outpatient appointment, with or without transport?’ If the answer is yes, attendance at a GP surgery is most appropriate.

Please note this includes those patients in residential care.

Summary of recommendations

Home visits remain a valuable part of primary care, and in some circumstances are the most appropriate way of assessing and managing patients.

This guideline shows you that, for the majority of patients, thorough assessment and triage will demonstrate that attendance at the surgery is the most appropriate option.

Implementation of the guideline should help ensure home visits are used appropriately, by the practice, and patients alike.