Home visiting guidelines

In order to ensure that the best use is made of your GP services, please attend the surgery whenever possible. If you need advice, you can contact NHS DIRECT on 08454647

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. GP visit is not usual
   In most of these cases a visit would not be an appropriate use of your GP's time or best for you:
   • Heart Attack - severe Crushing chest pain. The best approach is to call an emergency paramedic ambulance. 
   • Common symptoms of childhood: 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 carers,

Sunderland Local Medical Committee in conjunction with the Community Health Council (slightly adapted): 18 March 2006