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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think this is a rather strange and stupid rule for a doctors practise to have?

120 replies

BigBadMousey · 31/07/2008 09:29

DD1 4.3 been up all night very ill with suspected tonsilitis. Been sick several times and had a high temp.

I asked the docs for a home visit (she gets car sick as it is and is feeling dizzy plus she would be incredibly upset if she was sick in public) and they said 'no, we have a policy whereby we don't do home visits for children'.

wtf?

I don't get it - seems ridiculous to me but AIBU?

OP posts:
Original poster
BigBadMousey · 31/07/2008 09:31

off to docs now but will return for the verdict later.....

OP posts:
EffiePerine · 31/07/2008 09:31

it is pants but not unusual I'm afraid

if she is v ill I'd try A&E instead

bigspender30 · 31/07/2008 09:32

ridiculous cost cutting crap. Hope she is ok,keep us posted x

PrincessPeaHead · 31/07/2008 09:33

No it is perfectly sensible. A child has an adult who can take them to the surgery. A sick elderly person may not have that luxury. Taking a GP out of the surgery to go to your house and look in her throat would waste time that could be spent seeing 12 other patients. This is more important than your dd being upset because she was sick.

This is the NHS, not a personal physician. Put her in the car and take her to the surgery and stop being so precious.

meemar · 31/07/2008 09:33

I suppose their reasoning is that a child has to be accompanied anyway, so an adult can bring them in.

I can see why going in would be distressing for your poor dd though.

Mercy · 31/07/2008 09:34

I've been with 3 different surgeries since the dc were born - none of them do home visits (except for housebound or disabled patients)

But we do have an out-of-hours service.

boredveryverybored · 31/07/2008 09:35

Agree with pph am afraid, makes sense to me. I have had a Dr's visit for DD once, and that was only because I was very ill myself and they knew I couldn't get her there.

stitch · 31/07/2008 09:36

its not unusaal. the idea is that the parents are well, and can always bundle the child into a car/taxi etc and bring them
and it is the nhs

motherinferior · 31/07/2008 09:36

I reckon GPs would spend their entire lives tending to the minor malaises of PFBs if they didn't have a rule like this.

ruddynorah · 31/07/2008 09:37

makes sense.

TigerFeet · 31/07/2008 09:40

My doctor reckons that the trip out often does poorly children good - they are generally too hot and a bit of cool air can help bring their temperature down. Certainly whenever dd has been to the docs with a temperature she has perked up on the way.

If she were too ill to be put in her buggy or in the car and taken to the doctor then it would be A&E for me. That's happened to us once.

The only exception imo would be if you had a child too old for a buggy who couldn't walk far and a car or taxi wasn't an option. You'd have no choice but to call a GP out then.

slightlycrumpled · 31/07/2008 09:45

I can understand you not wanting to take her out, but it does make sense.

I hope she is feeling better soon.

girlywhirly · 31/07/2008 10:17

When my DS was 9, he had pain in his ears accompanied by slight dizziness and vomiting. The Dr receptionist told me I couldn't have a home visit, but if I brought him to the surgery just before afternoon appointments started, she would fit him in then, so that we wouldn't have to wait. No surgery wants a vomiting child in their waiting room for any length of time, so it is worth asking if they will do this if they don't offer.

We took the potette with us as a precaution, in case he couldn't make the loo in time. We were seen at the start of surgery, and an ear infection diagnosed. Having said that, I couldn't have carried him if he'd been too dizzy to walk.

Oblomov · 31/07/2008 10:21

No, I think it is reasonable that the GP doesn't come out to you/dd.

greenlawn · 31/07/2008 10:22

I don't think our surgery has a blanket rule as such, though I suspect they would need to be pretty sure you needed a home visit.

I've never had a home visit for anyone in the family, though having once had to bundle ds1 up in a blanket in the middle of the night to visit the out of hours GP (at the hospital) - both of us arrived covered in vomit! - I sympathise.

Original poster
BigBadMousey · 31/07/2008 10:23

Righto - I agree IABU - just been up most of the night last night and several nights previously with DCs and couldn't make sense of it at 8am this morning.

Docs were very helpful indeed, she does have tonsilitis - I suspected as much because I have it too. Baby DS has been ill too - what a healthy bunch we all are

Don't think I was being precious princesspeahead - just knackered!

She isn't much of PFB - more a NeglectedFB .

Thanks for the replies and putting me straight

OP posts:
TigerFeet · 31/07/2008 10:38

Hope she's feeling better sson

mum2taylor · 31/07/2008 10:41

Bigbadmousey for what its worth....I agree with you! What if you dont have the luxury of a car (maybe dh takes the car to work etc)? If your child is ill and being sick you dont want to risk public transport in case they are sick everywhere etc, etc. I think in certain circumstances doctor visits to the home are necessary.

nametaken · 31/07/2008 10:48

YABU - I thought home visits were stopped years ago !!!!!!

OrmIrian · 31/07/2008 10:50

The only time we had a home visit in the last 20 yrs or so was when my DH was so ill (D&V) that he was unable to stand and was dehydrating badly. GPs receptionist accepted that he couldn't get there alone and that as I had 3 LOs in the house too it was unreasonable to expect DH to go anywhere. Oh and once in the middle of the night when my athsma was so bad I could hardly get a breath and was unable to walk more than a few steps.

smallwhitecat · 31/07/2008 10:51

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

OrmIrian · 31/07/2008 10:51

ie when patients were physically unable to get themselves anywhere.

Anna8888 · 31/07/2008 10:52

I think children are sometimes too ill to leave the house and that doctors ought not to have a blanket "no home visit" policy. I'm thinking of a friend's child who recently had appalling D&V - she tried taking him in the car to the doctor's surgery, but gave up because he had D&V's all over the car before she had even got out of the driveway and she didn't think that it was appropriate for either child or doctor's surgery for her child and herself to be dripping in D&V when they arrived.

ReallyTired · 31/07/2008 11:38

I think shame on you.

Last winter my elderly 88 year old neighbour cracked her hip with a fall. She was in agony, but walked to the doctor's surgery because she didn't want to be "any bother". I would have given her a lift to the doctors if she asked. To make matters worst she did not consider her pain to be an emergency.

It is very rare for child ailments to be serious. Mothers often forget that all sections of society need doctors. Tonsilitus is unpleasent, but rarely serious.

Before anyone asks I had my tonsils out at Great Ormond Street Hospital at the age of six because my breathing was obstructed. Even then I think my parents took me to the GP by car.

mum2taylor · 31/07/2008 11:45

Reallytired i am so sorry to hear of what happened to your neighbour, but as you say doctors are for all sections of society and that does include children....your neighbour should have had a home visit and I would have hoped any doctor worth their salt would have prioritised their home visits and saw to your neighbour first, but that does not mean that children should not be entitled to the same level of care when it is a real emergency.

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