Obtaining a Home Visit
If you are too ill to attend the surgery please ring to request a home visit between 8.00 – 10.00 am. The GP who visits you may not be the doctor of your choice. Home visits are made at the discretion of the GP.
If the patient has a rash or raised temperature, attending the surgery will not harm or endanger others, but please inform the receptionist on arrival. When requesting a home visit the receptionist will need to know your name, address and telephone number and basic details about your illness.
Please remember home visits are time-consuming and a GP can see several patients at the surgery during the time a home visit takes. The GP has staff and equipment in the surgery to give you better attention and more effective patient care.
Only housebound patients or those with a terminal illness will be granted a visit.
We have developed a definition of “housebound” to encourage people, who are able, to attend clinics for their routine appointments with the GP or the Nursing Team (Practice Nurse/Health Care Assistant) for blood pressure checks, vaccinations, Asthma reviews etc) and to limit the use of home visits.
Our agreed definition of housebound guidelines aims to ensure that GP clinical teams are providing routine clinical appointments 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 will be reassessed on a regular basis.
A patient is deemed to be housebound when they are unable to leave their home environment through a physical or psychological illness. A patient is not considered housebound if he or she is able to leave their house with minimal assistance or support. For example: unassisted/assisted visit to the doctor, dentist, hairdresser, supermarket, social events or hospital outpatients. Some patients may not be housebound permanently but rather are housebound temporarily as a consequence of an episode of illness. Minimal assistance would be described as a person who can leave their own home and travel to a clinic appointment in a vehicle such as a personal car, taxi or public transport adapted for their use or not and with or without the use of a wheelchair either by themselves or with an escort.
To avoid confusion any person who requires a specialist vehicle (Ambulance) or a two person escort would be regarded as housebound.
To avoid further confusion a person will not be regarded as housebound because they do not personally have a companion to escort them to a clinical appointment.
We regret that we are unable to offer home visits for patients who are prevented from attending the surgery by lack of transport or childcare issues.
To request a home visit please phone the practice on 0113 287 0870
All requests for home visits will be triaged by a member of the practice team in order to assist the GPs and nurses in prioritising visits. Your GP will also decide if/how urgently a visit is needed (please be aware that a request for a home visit does not mean that one will be undertaken if the GP thinks it inappropriate).