Home visits
When we can come to you, and when it's safer to come to the surgery.
Please come to the surgery if you can
The doctors can see roughly four patients here in the time a single home visit takes. Coming to us means we can use equipment that isn't portable (ECG, full examination kit, IT systems) and that more patients get seen. We'd ask for your cooperation in attending whenever it's practical.
When a home visit is appropriate
Home visits are for patients who are genuinely too unwell or too immobile to attend the surgery. The clinical examples include:
- Patients who are bed-bound or chair-bound long-term
- End-of-life and palliative care
- Patients newly discharged from hospital who can't yet travel
- Acute illness severe enough that travel would worsen the condition
Lifts being out of order, lack of transport, working hours and childcare arrangements don't on their own qualify for a home visit. Reception can help you find alternatives, such as a phone or video appointment, a later in-person slot, or signposting to the Community Nursing team.
How to request a home visit
Call 01270 441672 and ask reception for a home visit.
Please call before 10:30am where you can
This lets the duty GP plan their visit list around morning appointments and any urgent same-day work. Visits requested after 10:30am may still be done that day but it depends on capacity.
What reception will ask you
A handful of brief clinical questions. They're care-navigation trained, not gatekeeping. The duty GP needs the information to decide whether a visit, a phone call, or an in-surgery review is best.
Important: A GP may call you first
Most home-visit requests are reviewed by the duty doctor by phone before a visit is booked. This means quicker advice for some patients and helps the GP arrive at your home with the right plan.
Urgent Response Community Visiting Service
If the duty GP feels you need a same-day in-person assessment but a doctor visit isn't the right fit, they can arrange a visit from an Advanced Community Practitioner (ACP) instead. ACPs are senior healthcare professionals from our local community team trained to assess and treat patients at home.
The aim is to make sure patients see the right person quickly, rather than waiting for a GP slot when an ACP could resolve it sooner. You don't request this directly - it's the GP's call once they've heard the details.
Out of hours
When the surgery is closed, home visits are handled by the out-of-hours service. Call NHS 111 and they'll arrange for a doctor or nurse to see you if needed. For mental health crises, call 111 and select option 2, available 24/7 and free. In a life-threatening emergency always dial 999.