Bernhard
In England we try to limit home visits as they are an inefficient use of a
doctor's time.
In my surgery we have a doctor out every morning doing visits 0900 -11.30.
Most of the patients seen are elderly and housebound.These visits are not
usually urgent.
Some visits are to patients who feel too ill to travel to the surgery.( or
children whose parents refuse to bring them because they think they are too ill)
Occasionally the patient is seriously and acutely ill.
For the rest of the day there is a doctor on call. He or she will visit suddenly
and seriously ill people. Anyone who sounds(over the phone) fit to travel is
encouraged to come to the surgery.
To answer your question more specifically visits are necessary because we are
not in a legal position to refuse.If the patient says they can't come to us then
we have to put ourselves in a position to make a diagnosis which means we have
to visit. I personally would prefer not to do any except for the absolutely
housebound.
There are other arguments for doing visits.
- priviledge to enter patients' homes and gain further insight etc
- patients expect it having paid their taxes !
- GPs ideally placed to triage their patients when acutely unwell, ie more cost
effective for us to sort them out   than for everyone to be dragged off to
casualty in an ambulance.
That is four reasons
A fifth is that we are paid ( a little ) extra to see them at night between
22.00 and 08.00
Some of my colleagues will probably consider me a cynic but I feel the system is
abused by our patients
in such a way that British GPs may eventually refuse to do home visits
altogether.
What do you do in Austria ?
Ian
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ian_quigley
	to see what we tell our patients about home visits !



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