HOME VISITS

If you are too unwell to come to the surgery, a home visit can be arranged by calling before 11am. A home visit will only be undertaken if there is a clear medical need as seeing patients who are able to come in at the Health Centre enables us to provide better care to those individuals and to our population as a whole.

It is important that the very best use is made of all NHS services so that as many housebound patients as possible can be seen by NHS staff and teams. Home visits are a valuable resource and provide a real benefit to many patients. However, there have been a significant number of occasions that have been recorded by the community teams where they have arrived at a patient’s home only to discover that have they popped out to the shops or are visiting family. The following definition of housebound will be used in order to determine allocation of resources:

‘A person who is unable to leave their place of residence without the support of an ambulance, two people, or where based on clinical judgment, you would not expect the patient to attend the surgery’.

If there are any changes to your availability for a home visit appointment please ensure you contact the Team who are due to visit - this might be your Doctor or it could be someone from the Community Nursing team.