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Patients are requested to telephone the surgery before 10:00am if a visit is required, in order to allow doctors to plan their calls. It is at the doctor's discretion as to whether a home visit is deemed necessary. In order to ensure that the best use is made of your GP services, please attend the surgery whenever possible. A doctor is best able to assess your condition at the surgery where we have the equipment and facilities.

Home Visiting Guidelines

GP Visit Recommended

Home visiting makes clinical sense and is the best way of giving medical opinion in cases involving:

• The terminally ill

• The truly housebound patient for whom travel to premises by car would cause deterioration in their medical condition.

GP Visit May Be Useful

• Following a conversation with a health professional, it may be agreed that a seriously ill patient may be helped by a GP's visit

GP Visit Is Not Usual

In most cases it would not be an appropriate use of your GP's time or best for you in the following circumstances:

• Common symptoms of childhood such as fevers, cold, cough, earache, headache, diarrhoea/vomiting and most cases of abdominal pain. These patients are usually well enough to travel to the surgery. It is not harmful to take a child with fever outside.

• Adults with common problems, such as cough, sore throat, influenza, general malaise, back pain and abdominal pain are also readily transportable to the doctor's surgery. Transport arrangements are the responsibility of the patients or their carer.s

HOME VISITS

In order to ensure that the best use is made of your GP services, please attend the surgery whenever possible. A doctor is best able to assess your condition at the surgery where we have the equipment and facilities.