why dont docs do home visits anymore,

[misdee]

dd1 is really ill, but i am quite welcome to bring her down to the clinic, never mind the fact i haver 2 other kids to look after and one is already settling for the night. why wont the docs come out anymore?

pph, no they arent here o look after just my family, but my dd1 is a known asthmatic and is very ill. just after i posted the start of this messages her breathing became very laboured so i dialled 999. the paramedics were great, dd1 had vomited byu then and her breathing was easier. bu they insisted she was seen at the hospital as her temp wasnt going down at all, despite being given the full dose of calpol. she was weighed at the hospital and a top up of calpol was given plus ibruprofen which i dont generally give because of the asthma.

I have had to fight in the past for home visits for peter.

I can see that Peter would merit a home visit. A child that needs calpol and ibuprofen - no. A serious asthmatic - should go to A&E.
Doctor's lists are too big to do home visits in all but very specific cases (very elderly, people who shouldn't be moved etc). Not for a child were the only reason not to move them is so that you don't disturb their siblings beauty sleep.
Sorry!

she'd HAD calpol already, but due to being asthmatic was unsure about giving inruprofen. siblings beuty sleep hahaha.

i am so glad i am not a permanent single parent having to juggle more than one child. it would be awful.

PPH, I am sorry but I have to intervene here. I think you are being more than a tad unfair, a gp could have come out to listen to the childs chest and nebulised/ given steroid/antibiotics. which I'm sure is all that a and e will do.

If we recieve an urgent GP call that sounds as if it will need an ambulance, a gp will often meet the ambluance ther to enhance the prehospital care and when possible treat the patient at home. reducing the strain on a and e and treating the chil/patient in a friendlier environment, its not just about the other kids!
Misdee. the new unschedualed care incetive will be working much more towards see and treat paramedic and better out of hour care. hope it improves for you soon.

thats all A and E did do. they observed, gave ibruprofen (thankfully no reaction), and sent us home.

you've had a rough night misdee, hope thing improve. FWIW, the reaction to brufen only occurse in a small amount of asthmatics. Allot of them are fine with nurofen etc.

get some sleep love!

i know its a small % but its not something i'd want to risk myself. at least i know she should be ok with it in the future.

absolutely! bonus for the future bugs and I'm sure their will be many. (am covered in chap vomit at the minute)
stick to your guns, you obviously know your babies best!

glad she is ok misdee.

But A&E is full of posters saying something along the lines of "Should you be here - bugger off and go to your GP and stop wasting our time".

That's what home visits are for - people who shouldn't be putting more strain on a&e, but who can't get to the doctors.

Whenever I have rung the out of hrs/NHS direct they always say take ds/dd to clinic/a&E. Can only remember ONE time they visited ds as a baby, because I dug my heels in. My midwife couldn't even get my GP surgery to come out to me and dd when she was 7 days old and I had a uterine infection in my c-section scar- had to go and sit in surgery for 2 hrs and ended up receiving a BIG grovelling apology.

Glad she is ok misdee, how worrying and stressful for you

Aww I hope she gets well soon misdee

spacecadet. I was under the impression that the criteria for a home visit is this that you need to be
Dead.

from my experience they don't seem to bother otherwise.

was in the middle of posting and ds2 pressed the post message button.

I also meant to say that i hope you dd is better soon misdee

saltire-what made me laugh was when the triage nurse on the phone asked why i was requesting a home visit, despite the fact that i said i had pnuemonia, she said i didnt fit their criteria!

the receptionist at the surgery asked once why i was requesting a home visit for Peter. I sighed and said 'He has dilated cardiomyopathy, is in end stage heart failure and he is swelling up as we speak'. Gp came out within an hour and got peter readmitted to hospital.

i didn't know they did home visits at all!

i thought if you got that ill, you'd need to ring an ambulance.

we've rung nhs24 and gotten prompt after-hours appointments.

when dd2 and i had oral thrush and she was just about 6 weeks old, they saw us right away - at the Western, which was a shorter taxi ride away - and even gave me thrush cream for my norks so i wouldn't reinfect dd2.

one time when i was about 14 weeks preggo i had to get in a taxi for the royal infirmary, and i felt sorry for the driver when i climbed into his taxi w/a basin, but he got me there mega quick . good thing, too, b/c i was throwing up blood.

They told me something similar spacecadet. I was rolling on the floor with pain in my side, and crying my eyes out, i literally couldn't move and was on my own, with the kids. They told me that i didn't meet the criteria for a home visit. I called my dh's boss, who sent his wife round, ended up in hospital with appendicitis!
Same thing happened when Ds2 was a baby, he ended up in hospital with febrile convulsions, and again i'd had to phone an ambulance cos Doctor wouldn't come out

They wouldn't come out when me and my baby had chickenpox, even though I explained I thought it was chickenpox. The surgery was running 45 minutes late. The GP said I was too ill to be driving home, too ill to look after a baby and needed to go to the hospital immediately. I then had to wait a further 30 minutes in the waiting room before I was picked up. I feel sorry for all the people I probably passed it on to, especially if any one was pregnant.

I was told to "get a cab" at 2am, I had flu and DS had pneumonia. They said no way, no chance...home visits are for frail and elderly patients.

Glad it worked out misdee. I remembered this thread from the other day and thought I'd add what happened to me this morning.

My back suddenly seized up and I was in agony (well, it hurt an awful lot anyway) and I couldn't move, so DH phoned the doctors surgery for advice (we didn't think it merited an ambulance and would hate to waste their time but otoh I couldn't move and needed some help) and they said they'd send a doctor out. She was here within an hour. I feel very lucky, as I thought I'd be laid out on the living room floor all day! It turned out to be muscular so I can move about now, when dosed up with painkillers. Also v. impressed that she knew I was breastfeeding and issued painkillers accordingly. I had been to docs last week, where I'd confirmed I was 'still' (10m) feeding her so maybe it is on record, but I'm amazed this got through to a home visit doctor. Sorry, strayed off topic there, but it's nice to have a good word to say about the service I got. Reading this thread, I think I have been extremely lucky.

I totally agree that GP's should do home visits in many of the cases described here so I am not defending them as such.

However, when my grandmother was dying a little over a year ago and was being looked after at home by my mother, the GP's came out regularly for home visits, as did nurses. They were not able to actually do anything except check her and reassure that my mother was doing ok. she was old and at the end of her life and they were very very good. Perhaps that is what they reserve home visits for?