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Original poster

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

180 replies

Smellsofbeef · 09/12/2022 22:58

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 ?

OP posts:
Prestissimo · 10/12/2022 08:32

Lots of things have changed. As PPs have said more people have cars and can get to the surgery. Also medical care has changed - back in the day GPs would have visited for strokes and various other things that now have treatment available in hospital. So we send patients straight in, visiting first isn't going to change our management. Previously visits would have often been for social support more than medical and for good or for ill we just don't have the time for that now. We also have access to more equipment at the surgery like ECGs and so on, which aren't portable for home visits - you really do get worse care at home on the whole. If someone was unresponsive at home or having spoken to them I suspected sepsis I'd be sending an ambulance, not getting in my car. I suppose now everyone has a phone we can do more triage and advise appropriately (we ring all visit requests before we go out). In the 60s/70s many people wouldn't have had phones at home and so the dr had no other way of getting hold of someone to review them. Now I ring people at 7pm instead of popping in on my way home. Shipman had an influence as well - we do carry fewer drugs now (I used to carry morphine and all sorts routinely 15 years ago but wouldn't now). Also fewer drs dispense medication now, so they wouldn't necessarily have a bottle of antibiotics to bring you.

For some it's appropriate and we still do visits every day. But I work rurally and it took me 2 hours to visit 3 patients on Thursday - I could have seen 8-12 in the surgery in that time, so it really isn't an efficient way of providing care. It's now generally housebound or palliative care patients who have visits. I've visited new babies at home after a home birth to do the baby check and they're always lovely, but quite rare round here. I wouldn't expect to visit otherwise fit and healthy adults for a transient illness, although as some have said vertigo is one situation where we sometimes do, if someone can't get out of bed with it.

Eatentoomanyroses · 10/12/2022 08:33

I was born in the eighties and remember de out once to my baby sister and a few times to an elderly relative. I was always taken to the surgery

Throwaway1066 · 10/12/2022 08:35

Born in 1981. We had a handful of home visits when we were poorly with croup/glandular fever/scarlet fever etc But all routine appointments were done at the surgery.

I did however have a postpartum visit from my GP in 2009? It was routine for my surgery at the time, he came over 3 days after birth and checked my abdomen (no c-section) and my DS. That didn’t happen 3 years later with DS2.

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converseandjeans · 10/12/2022 08:35

Born in 1972 and never had a home visit. I think it's only really for older people who can't get out of the house.

The surgery is better as they can make notes, refer to prior info, do things like blood pressure. Also it would cost a fortune if all visits were home visits.

RememberedForAllTheWrongReasons · 10/12/2022 08:38

I was born in 73 and have never had a home visit.

DH has had 3/4 home visits over the last few years when he has been too poorly to go to the surgery and the Drs have attended and then called for ambulance transport to hospital.

I work in a surgery and our GP’s do home visits every day to housebound patients.

Khara · 10/12/2022 08:38

I was born in 69 and had home visits from the doctor. In fact, once the doctor visited and then drove my dad to the only chemist that was open to pick up my prescription because we didnt have a car. I also visited the surgery but if I was proper poorly (temperature) I stayed in bed and the doctor came out.

Prestissimo · 10/12/2022 08:39

Also should say that fewer drs live in their 'patch 'any more - out of hours services have changed that because you're not doing your own overnights. (GPs were responsible for their patients' care 24/7 until the 2004 contract change, although many practices worked in groups - 'co-ops' - and took turns to be on call from the 90s onwards). So I do live locally to lots of my patients but most of my colleagues don't.

AliceMcK · 10/12/2022 08:40

Born in 75 never had home visits, even when I had whooping cough my parents had to take me on 2 buses to do hospital visits.

Only home visits were baby nurses or for elderly or immobile patients.

LearnerCook · 10/12/2022 08:41

I was born in 70 and have had 1 home visit in my entire life. Did you live in some rural area where the surgery didn't have as many patients?? Home visits have never been the normal in my lifetime.

Fluffygreenslippers · 10/12/2022 08:43

I was a kid in the 90s and I remember having a couple of home visits from the GP. I think thats how I ended up in hospital, as he realised I had pneumonia.

LunaTheCat · 10/12/2022 08:44

i was born in 1964.. I went to the surgery. There was a lovely Dr Patterson who wore a suit. My mother was a bit neurotic so we went to the doctors a lot!
we moved to New Zealand and had to pay ( although heavily government subsidised ) we hardly saw a doctor after that 🤣🤣
I am now a semi rural GP in New Zealand and if I am not pressured for time I still do house visits for unwell .. often elderly and terminally ill … it’s a great honour and I am treated like a family friend.to make people comfortable and at peace and see them with loving family is just wonderful.

MargaretThursday · 10/12/2022 08:44

Also when I was small there was no appointment system.
You turned up any time from 8 and waited.
In Winter months you could turn up at 8.10 and find you waited until 3pm to be seen. In summer months you might turn up at 8.30 and find no one had turned up and the GPS had all gone because no one was there at 8, so you had to wait for tomorrow unless it was urgent when you could be put on the home visit list.

They did the home visits when they'd finished the people who turned up. However if you called after the doctor had left to start the home visits the receptionists had to decide in which home the doctor might be to call and tell them to add you to the list. Sometimes people got missed like that because they never got through or a message left with a house wasn't passed on. Mobile phones have made that sort of thing much easier.

Tonsiltrouble · 10/12/2022 08:44

I did work experience at the local GP one afternoon a week over several months in 2003 - the GP did do visits, and I went with him. Largely they were to care homes or the occasional very elderly/frail person. If I recall that was around the time of the new contract which that particular GP was not in favour of. In fact, he predicted it would destroy primary healthcare and warned me not to become a GP.

A neighbour in the early 2010s was a GP and I think she had to do some house calls. But again I think nowadays most kids don’t count because they can be carried by a parent to a hub.

WonderingWanda · 10/12/2022 08:46

I can remember home visits from the gp in the 80's but not in the 90's. I do know our local GP's still do home visits for terminally ill patients or bereavement. I don't think home visits are necessary really. My kids are either well enough for me to treat myself at home, a bit of a worry so I will ring the gp who may prescribe something over the phone or sick enough to need an ambulance. I think too many people (lots of parents who don't look at the child in front of them but go on a google adventure trying to self diagnose) still don't apply common sense to needing gp treatment.

lobsterkiller · 10/12/2022 08:47

Born in 71, home visits only for out of hours and if unable to attend a surgery.

I only had two, both for what turned out to be grumbling appendicitis over the weekend.

eurochick · 10/12/2022 08:53

I'm a couple of years younger than you and can remember some home visits when I was a child. This was not in a rural area - we lived in Greater London.

OwlingAround · 10/12/2022 08:53

Born late 70s (London) and the GP came out at night several times when me or siblings were children and had chickenpox, tonsillitis etc.

I suppose there was no 111 or urgent care in those days. It was GP or A&E.

Atethehalloweenchocs · 10/12/2022 08:54

a lot changed when the funding model to GP changed and they started to run surgeries like businesses - bringing in business managers which are all about maximizing money into the shareholders (GPs) pockets. I head one actually say that her priority was not the patients or the staff, it was the bottom line. Home visits cost them money.

CharityShopChic · 10/12/2022 08:55

I am a year older than you, born in 1972. My brother was born in 1974. Don't ever remember having a home visit from the doctor at all in my childhood.

The only time I've ever had a doctor out to the house was when I had horrendous abdominal pain at 3am and my baby was 3 weeks old. Turned out to be gallstones. Was very grateful to the doctor who pitched up and gave me an injection of something.

EmmaAgain22 · 10/12/2022 08:55

Atethehalloweenchocs · 10/12/2022 08:54

a lot changed when the funding model to GP changed and they started to run surgeries like businesses - bringing in business managers which are all about maximizing money into the shareholders (GPs) pockets. I head one actually say that her priority was not the patients or the staff, it was the bottom line. Home visits cost them money.

Is that in the Blair/Brown era that happened?

LaurelGrove · 10/12/2022 08:59

I was also born in 1973. The GP came out once to my younger brother (suspected appendicitis on Christmas Day) and every other time we went to the surgery. I have had one home visit as an adult when my c-section wound got infected and I couldn't walk.

ReluctantCourier · 10/12/2022 09:04

Once in the early 90’s. I had appendicitis and mum was home alone with me and my younger brother. Ended up with me bring admitted to hospital… I seem to remember it was the middle of the night but could be mis-remembering

Turtletotem · 10/12/2022 09:06

I had my youngest child in 2009 planned homebirth with independent midwife all went well. GP visited the following day to check on us I had never met him i was new to the area large town. He came in took off his shoes and spoke really quietly totally respecting the space we had created, asked to have a peep at the baby.

Brefugee · 10/12/2022 09:08

I was born in the early 60s and I've never had a home visit and nobody in my immediate family did either.

Philandbill · 10/12/2022 09:13

@Turtletotem I had a home birth with an independent midwife too and our lovely GP came at lunchtime the next day to do the well baby check. She said it was a joy to do a visit to a healthy mum and baby after an easy birth.
Family member is a GP. They often do home visits, almost always between 12 and 2 when the practice is closed to patients coming into the surgery. They eat a lot of sandwich lunches in their car.