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'm your age and we went to the doctor's surgery. In an emergency out of hours the dr would make a home visit and it would be a dr you knew from the surgery but not necessarily yours as there was a rota. Things have definitely got worse!

GPs get six minutes per patient, don't they? I don't think spending most of their time touring around is a good idea to be honest. Plus home visits increase risk for GPs being attacked/robbed for opiates etc.

Maybe it was different in times when fewer people had cars or access to taxis - easier for the doctor to walk or drive to you than for you to walk to the doctor. Most people now would be able to get motorised transport if they really had to (lifts or cabs).

Not the norm for me either, born in 67. I do remember home visits for appendicitis.

My GP is fantastic, they don’t shy away from home visits. I was ill about a year ago, phoned the surgery and got an emergency appointment, a hour later I was too ill to move, they were at my house within half an hour. Unbeknown to me I had sepsis.

I think it might also have been a rich people's thing that was extended to everyone briefly under the NHS - if you went back to Victorian times, doctors would charge a lot, if you couldn't afford it the budget version was queuing outside a dispensary where you'd get a quick consultation and medicine.

TCP for us - thanks for reminding me! It has a particular fragrance 😊

Born in 62 and I do remember getting vaccinations for a trip at home. No memory of other home visits or going to GP.
It probably depends on where you lived. My uncle (died last year at 96) was a small town GP and made home visits, particularly for the elderly. And occasionally patients would show up at his house. You should have seen the amount of alcohol he got at Christmas! Now you just get whatever doctor is in at the time.

Nope. Born same year as you and don't remember any home visits.

I had home visits for both me and dc up till about 2007 then it stopped totally and went to ooh care if needed

No, slightly older than you, the doctors were always seen at the surgery, although what is different is that the out of hours emergency doc was always a doc from our practice. I remember on hearing a tape message to ring Dr Xx, he lived two streets away and arrived in a suit and dickie bow, him and his wife were having a dinner party. He was round like a shot, DD was very poorly and there was a lot of meningitis at the time.

I remember a home visit when I was a child (born 76) for an ear infection, and being given sachet amoxicillin until the chemist opened. I remember going to the surgery several times. I had a home visit for my eldest son who's 24 when he was a baby.

Oh and the GP came out a few days after I'd given birth to all 3, now 20 22 and 24

My DC were born in the 80s and I DO remember a couple of home visits.
On one occassion my DS was very sick and could not really get up without being sick, and just lay on the settee. I was sufficiently concerned and the (locum, I think, not one I knew.) GP came round. I remember him giving him many tests, and checking for meningitis, etc.

Born 1966. We went to the surgery and sat at waited mostly. I don't recall Dr coming out to us. I think the thing that is crushing most services is admin, data collection, back covering and monitoring. But then you hear about the next scandal where someone hasn't done their job over and over and then you think well this is why we are in this culture of monitoring and back covering. Depressing !

Born in 1958. I remember the doctor visiting once when I was poorly with mumps - i remember hallucinating about friendly tigers. Mum called the doctor and he popped in when passing. Mum worked for him as a pharmacy assistant later on, just him and his son in a rural practice. There was a horrible cold building in our village where one of them came twice a week, no appointments you just turned up and could wait 3 or 4 hours to see him.

Very little paperwork, and mum used to bring home medications like antibiotics or (most memorably) diet pills (speed) for us.

Our doctors had a list of about 6000 between the two of them - about 1/3 of the current list size. We hardly ever saw the doctor, certainly not for what mum would consider childhood sniffles, colds, flu, sore throat, coughs, hurt knees and so forth. Disprin (aspirin) was the cure for everything, unless you were a Beechams Powders family, and panadol was not heard of much yet.

Even then more people died younger - car crashes, heart attacks, pneumonia. If you had a stroke there was no treatment. More children died, especially babies born with disabilities. And children were naughty, bad or disturbed, not mentally ill or neurodivergent.

Very different times, and only 60 years ago.

I was born in 1964. Our GP would always do house visits for childhood illnesses. Quite rightly he didn’t want infectious individuals in the waiting room spreading things further. In the 60s there wasn’t the herd immunity from vaccination, think “Call the Midwife”.
My GP came out to visit me after DS was born (2004) but she had seen me through multiple miscarriages and a complicated pregnancy so couldn’t wait to have a cuddle. It was very much a social visit.

I was born in 1957, and homes visits were reserved for those who could not attend the surgery because they were too ill and/ or they were highly contagious. Otherwise you went to the surgery. What I have noticed is that people went to the doctor when they were really ill. These days it seems like people go for just about everything including all the minor stuff nobody would have gone to a doctor gor back then.

Home visits are very costly in time and money, and shouldn't be done unless there is no alternative.

Never had a home visit (70's child) but ah, the days when you could get straight through to the surgery on the phone and make an appointment with your regular doctor! Seems a lifetime ago. I don't think I'd bother trying these days unless I was at death's door, and I dread to think of the number of elderly people who must be dying quietly at home because they can't get through and don't know how to request an appointment online. Sad times.

Absolutely the norm. Particularly for sick children. I remember having a seizure in my early teens. My no nonsense sensible nurse Mum, got me comfy on the settee and I woke up to see the doctor kneeling next to me. He must have come pretty quickly.

Born 77 and remember having a home visit when I was 7ish in the night. I also remember even when I was a teenager there was always an on call GP up on the surgery noticeboard I think.

This was in the late 70s.

Wow, you’ve jogged my memory - my Dad became ill in the night one summer and our GP came to the house (2/3am ish) - it was 1994!!! ……incredibly rare even then I guess! Can you imagine feeling unwell in the night and your gp just popping over😲!! This was in the centre of a small city.

Yes..I was born late 70's and was completely the norm, we always had home visits..and if the doctor was there to see one sick child..he would always enquire about the other children in the home and always gave them a quick check up...And when the doctor was visiting any of our neighbours, he would always pop into my own mam

And now I’ve stopped to think about it 1994 was nearly 30 years ago😬…. It seems a lot more recent than that in my head🙈😂

I suppose it depends where you used to live? I'm a similar age to you OP and I've never had a home visit. The GPs around here are very reluctant to do them, even when you have parents who are in their 90s, as I'm sadly finding out now.

Child of the 70s.
Oy one of us to have a home visit was dbr when he had his first asthma attack aged 2yo.

One of my dc had a home visit with unknown rash in 2008. They'd seen the GP in the morning, but he wasn't happy about ds so said he'd pop in on the way home from work to check on him.

Home visits still happen, but they're going to be less efficient use of a doctor's time.