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 ?

Similar age and don't remember ever having a home visit. In fact, remember sitting on my Mum's lap in the waiting room wheezing badly with a nasty chest infection.

My doctor did home visits if needed. He was my doctor from when I was born until he retired when I was in my late 20s. He also was my families doctor so would often ask about my mums etc. I didn't move around much clearly 😂

I was born in 1968.
I remember a doctor coming out to me out of hours as a child once in about 1975 when I had asthma.
Our local doctors do house visits to house bound patients.

I was born in 1949. We used to go to the doctor's surgery if we could and the consulting room was in his house. After surgery he would go out on his rounds and do home visits to elderly patients, those unable to get to the surgery, newborns etc. He would also spend time at the cottage hospital.
My children were born in the early seventies and by that time home visits were more rare, but I think it persisted in rural areas where patients had no means of transport apart from rural bus services. I think my last home visit was in the nineties when I was immobile with sciatica.
You have to remember that the doctor had a car and lots of people didn't!

We still get home visits on request for my housebound dh.
I was born in 1944 and it was a mix of home visits if very ill and surgery visits otherwise. No appointments though you just turned up. Surgery hours were split between two doctors. One did surgery morning then home visits and vice versa. They took turns to be on nights. There was always a GP available.

Born in 91 and had a few home visits as a child and my fil had home visits once he was home from nearly dying from covid, and our dr used to drop in on my gmil when he was passing,and he still does home visits to the patients he has that has trouble getting out and about, in fact that's one off the reasons we can't get a morning appointment with him as he's out and about in the community

Born in 79 l, no home visits, but I remember having just 1 Doctor that I'd see, even though the surgery staffed 5 GPs.

It changed somewhere though around age 20, every time I'd go to see the Dr it'd be a new face and not who'd I'd seen every time for 20 years.

My dad was a GP from the 70s-00s. I definitely remember him being on call (no one else was allowed to use the phone in case a patient tried to get through).
He always had a couple of older patients who got regular home visits and when he was the duty GP at the surgery, they still did home visits to patients who couldn't get to the surgery.
I worked as a receptionist in the surgery as a student in the 90s and remember writing patients in the 'home visit' book.

Born in the 70s and only had one home visit in my life. Went to the surgery plenty as a child.

Born in 1961 and yes doctor came to the house whenever we were ill. DS 1 was born in 1992 and when he came home from hospital after 5 days which was the norm then, my GP made a random visit after a few days to the house just to see him as a courtesy call 😲

Born in the 70s too. Never had a home visit. Certainly had several visits to the surgery for ear infections, sore throats etc.

I'm younger than you OP and we never once had a home visit. We used to go and sit in the waiting room - I remember it so well. Snot green breeze block walls, mismatched dining chairs, old magazines, rather nice large fish tank.

The only times I saw a doctor go to someone's house was when they were dead or dying.

Born in 78, never had a home visit. They were only for the elderly or very ill/post surgery etc.

I'm a 1960s child and only had a home visit once and that was when I physically couldn't get out of bed. Home visits for anyone seemed to stop in the late 80s (or with the introduction of ooh services). In my town anyway.

I was born in 1990 and remember having a home visit in 96 or 97. Both my brother and I were unwell and the GP came out. Otherwise we'd always go to the surgery.

I was born 75. I remember various home visits, tummy bugs tonsillitis etc. Pretty much seemed the norm!

Born in 1962

Going to the GP surgery was the norm but home visits were possible for out of hours emergencies where several GPs would share the out of hours cover. People didn't call the ambulance much in those days - they'd call the doctor first and the doctor would decide if an ambulance should be called. Almost killed my brother when he had acute appendicitis as my parents wouldn't call an ambulance without speaking to the doctor first and it was 3 hours before the on-call doctor got to us got a home visit

I was born 1985. I remember a few home visits for tonsillitis, drs surgery visits for asthma, and one particular home visit for measles that would have been about mid-nineties.

By the time I got mumps in the early 2000's, home visits had stopped.

Had three home births 2006-2010 after which your named GP is paid to come and do a same day after birth health check on the baby. Visit 1 he brought another GP who showed him how to do the check as he'd never done one. Second time he came a day laye, after we'd complained he'd never shown up the day before. Third time round I wrote to the practice manager and asked for confirmation that I wouldn't be asked to come into the surgery on the day I gave birth, which was verbally given. Guess who got a call at 6pm on the day I gave birth at 4am (had been up all day and all night beforehand!) I only went in because it was with a different much nicer doctor who was appalled.

Also I have a friend who is a GP and who does do home visits as she had to quickly buy some decal stickers for her new black estate car after a patient's son thought it was a hearse! She's also talked about having a driver/security guy when working on a contract for doing home visits.

A huge change which I don't think anyone has mentioned is that ambulance drivers were not trained as HCPs until fairly recently. Back in the 1980s and earlier if you called an ambulance no assessment of patient's condition would happen until they arrived at A&E unless the GP had seen them first. Now the paramedics can do a lot at the patient's home and give advice which may mean not going to hospital at all. Also, 111 is available. Did that come in in the 1990s?

I had a home birth in 2007 and only had midwives around. Not that I needed a doctor, it was an easy birth.

Being over 60, I can count on my fingers the number of times I've visited or seen a GP, it's an average of once every 10-15 years. Childhood illnesses were generally caught because another child had chicken pox so that's what it was. You went for antibiotics if you had tonsilitis that didn't clear after a week of gargling TCP and that was about it.

Our GP surgery was like this but you could still make appointments, you would just have to wait weeks. One Dr would usually do the open surgeries. There would be a row of chairs for each Dr then about 4 rows for open surgery each morning. We had one female Dr who was also Asian in the surgery, which is located in an area with a very large Asian community it was nigh on impossible to get an appointment with her. This was back in the 80s. Even now she is still the only female Dr in the surgery which completely baffles me given the times and the ethnic diversity of the community.

There were definitely home visits, but I only even knew them for old people or immobile people.

Born in 1968. I was about a year old and unwell. My Dad saw the Doctor walking in the village and asked him if he could come and see me, which he did.

My sister was unwell at 7 weeks old and again the Doctor did a house visit. He was hysterical when he walked in and saw me sitting crossed legged on the kitchen table swishing the water in the goldfish bowl with my hand. My parents a were so concerned about my baby sister they took their eyes off me.