Lightbulb moment about GP’s and how things used to be

[Smellsofbeef]

I’ve just realised that as a child I was never taken to the doctors. If myself or any member of the family was Ill then the doctor was phoned and it would be a home visit. Never, ever taken to the doctors surgery.

I was born in 73 and as far as I know it was the norm back then.
On the other hand, my children who are now in their early 20’s have never had a home visit from the GP, no matter how poorly they’ve ever been we’d always be expected to take them to the surgery.

When did this about turn happen? Or was it just my family that would call the doctor for a home visit?

I remember the local doctor calling on my nana when he was passing! Not even been called, just he was nearby so he’d pop in to see her (she suffered with her ‘nerves’).

Was a home visit the norm back then ?

I was born in ‘80 & have had 2 GP home visits in my whole life, both of which ended with the GP calling 999. Home visits have always been for if you could not possibly attend the surgery unless the GP happened to be on their calls and had a spare half hr (ie never).

I was born in '66 and my Mum wasn't allowed to have me in hospital because we had a bathroom.

I remember going to the Dr but never a home visit .

I was born in 75 and never had a home visit from a Dr until my dd was very young out of hours, in 1997/98.

Born in 63. Always went to the surgery (which was the front room of his house).

A slightly morbid reference point, but serial killer GP Harold Shipman killed most of his victims out on home visits.

I was born in 78 and remember having one home visit in the night from a GP when I was really poorly but it was almost all in the
surgery.

honestly the move away from home visits to seeing patients in surgery is by and large a good thing - a home visit takes 4-5 times as long as a surgery appointment for the GP and there’s no kit available like an ECG machine etc available if you need it. Home visits are very rarely appropriate (palliative care is an obvious exception)

I’m only a few years younger than you, OP, and what you’re describing was the norm for my grandparents generation, not mine. Possibly my parents’ generation when they were children, but not adults. And that was in a fairly rural community where the ‘family doctor’ still existed.

The role of the GP (and the way it is funded by successive governments) changed radically - but that’s pretty unavoidable, I think.

My mum had a couple of home visits in the 90s but she was bed bound at the time. And a GP came out to my grandmother around the same time but again there were serious health problems. But I think they were both of a generation that expected a GP to come out and visit if they asked for it

I was born in 75 and I remember having home visits in the 80's for a bad dose of chickenpox and asthma, but I went to the surgery for other appointments. I was thinking about this the other day, how it was much easier to get a home visit from a doctor back then - now they seem to be only for the completely housebound or very elderly.

I had a home visit from a doctor in 1988 when I was having a miscarriage and again in 1993 when I had a problem during a pregnancy which looking back at now surprises me the doctor actually came out for. I can't remember any home visits as a child - I was born in 1963 but a GP came out to my mother who was housebound just before Covid began.

Born in 62 and don't recall home visits at all

Home visits were never the norm, the only ones i can remember in my immediate family was a badly injured back that made my Dad immobile, and me that ended in a week in hospital.

Home visits take up so much time, and also puts the GP at risk, who would want to enter a strangers house with a bag of drugs on your own esp at night?

The doctors I work with still do about 3 visits a day each. They also pop into very ill patients on their day off.

Nothing has changed.

We used to have a family doctor who did home visits I was born 74. It was so comforting, he was a lovely GP.

We had some as children, mainly bc we didn't have a car and lived in a village. I'm slightly older than the OP.

Not the norm in London in the seventies but as pp said GPs do still make some home visits

Our GP did a lot of home visits when I was wee - born in 80s. However we lived in a small town so maybe that's why?

I remember the doctor phoning one night at about 8pm to check how I was and coming round, calling an ambulance and sitting with us until it came (I was a baby with measles)

Btw obviously I don't remember it. I remember being told!

Now you come to mention it. I can't remember ever going to the GP as a child, didn't have a home visit either. I had mumps & chicken pox as a kid but I don't think I saw a gp for either. They were the only times I remember being off school. Mum was the main earner which I guess was unusual in the '70s and I do remember being physically sick at school quite a few times as I was never allowed to be off.

I think @thaegumathteth is right...small towns and villages it carried on longer, I had a home visit when my son was born in 2010 due to an abscess...I also remember them coming to the house when we were ill in the night (born in 85)

I can remember my terminally das having home visits in the early 80s.

When my DC were tiny in the late 90's they had at least one GP home visit for bad tonsillitis (which was a huge relief because I was heavily pregnant). My older two definitely had standard home visits following their births, can't remember the last one but I think maybe not. Maybe it was around 2000 that the expectation changed...you might call asking for a home visit but would be sent to an out of hours clinic somewhere.

Dad*

I think the contract change and Shipman brought down visits although they are still being done.

When I had my first child in 2000 in hospital my GP did a home visit just to see how I was!! No particular reason. He has sadly retired. I’m lucky if I can get a telephone call now.

I was born early 70s, and it wasn’t the norm then where we were, though I do recall one visit as a child when I was very ill with rubella. It was the norm for my grandparents, and the doctor would ad hoc drop in to check on them if they had been ill, but I think that must be because he had been their doctor before the NHS was formed, and that was the way it was done when you paid for the doctor, so their lovely doctor carried on doing the same for his patients that he had always done.