or was the doc right to refuse a home visit?

[2plus2more]

OK, so today my youngest (7 months) daughter's temperature kept spiking up to 39.5-40C and calpol was only keeping it down for about 2 hours before it started to rise again. She's also got an awful cough and cold which has been ongoing for 2-3 weeks, but today was the first time her temp has been bad. Normally I would call the docs and ask for a same day appointment and then drive down whenever the appointment was. Unfortunately that wasn't possible today because yesterday I fell on the stairs and ended up in hospital. Nothing broken thankfully but I have bruised my ribs and some muscles in my back so am unable to drive. TBH, I am struggling to move at all and even holding the babies is incredibly painful, so getting the buggy out and walking the 40min walk to the surgery with 4 kids was just not an option either. So anyway, I phoned the docs, explained the situation and asked if we could have a home visit. They said "no" because they "don't do home visits for babies". They said my daughter did need to be seen though so I would have to work out a way of getting there. I explained that it just wasn't possible as I couldn't walk or drive, I have no family who could take us, none of my neighbours have a big enough car to take me and all 4 of the kids and my husband works an hour's drive away from home (depending on traffic) and was uncontactable anyway because of meetings. They still refused because they "don't do home visits for babies". I had no choice but to wait until my husband was able to answer his phone, which wasn't until 4.30pm so he wouldn't get home until after the surgery was closed, and then when he got home we had to phone NHS24 and he drove 40 mins away to the out of hours doc at 6.30pm with exhausted daughter whose temp was spiking again. They're just home and she has a chest & an ear infection. She's gone through an extra 6 hours pain because doc wouldn't come out to see us and we've also had to take up a valuable out of hours doc appointment when we could have been seen by our own doc hours earlier. so - AIBU to be annoyed by this, or was doc right? Anyone else's doc have a similar policy of refusing home visits on babies?

Woman at bus stop thing did happen:

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/220860.stm

I was right the it was because the baby was floppy.

Fantastic story, but very different circumstances to the OP. I dont think any of us would hesitate to call an ambulance with the symptoms in that story!

YABU

Out of hours services exist to mop-up people who can't get appointments with their own GP or a home visit. Never feel bad about using them if you have to.

The surgery where I work always tries to accommodate requests for home visits and appointments, even if it's a call from the Doctor to triage and, if appropriate, then asks the patient to come to the surgery. There are plenty of options, but there is only so much a surgery can do to help.

Home visits take place between certain times (12-3pm at my surgery), so as not to disrupt the appointments with people who have made appointments to see their GPs and sometimes will have waited 2 weeks to see them.

Actually Out of hours services are designed to treat people who fall ill outside normal hours and cannot wait until the doctors reopen. Having said that if you are ill use them that's what they are there for.

I think in the circumstances in the OP the baby would have been seen quicker if she had been taken down to the GP's rather than waiting for a home visit.

It is, I agree different to that BBC story. OP did not describe her dd has being floppy, blue at the lips and I definitely don't remember her mentioning a purpuric rash. If someone had called a GP with those symptoms I really would hope they would tell the person calling to hang up and dial 999.

Oh sorry, LeQueen, got muddled with which story was which and pertained to which post, 'n all.

Sorry, but I think that you should have called your husband home from work. If you had been single and with no contactable relatives I could have possibly seen the case for a home visit, but I think that the other parent should have been called home to take the baby to the doctor.