Have you ever wondered how home visits came about? Or what a GP in the 50’s took along with them on a home visit? Let’s talk a short walk down memory lane. In the olden days, home visits were a given. Hospitals (and doctors) were few and far between and it wasn’t always easy for patients to travel to their doctors, due to poor health, poverty, age, or emergencies. So doctors (more GPs than specialists in those days) made home visits all the time. And we’re talking the 50’s and 60’s with no intermediary emergent services, which meant the GP had to be ready for anything short of an organ transplant on each home visit. Granted they had some help.
Take the doctor’s bag for example – the iconic Gladstone Bag (created right here in Westminster by J G Beard’s leather shop and named after British PM William Evart Gladstone) was built for utility with an easy-to-open hatch (that stayed open) to allow
the GP to reach his tools quickly and easily. Considering a GP might be treating a high fever or a concussion or even childbirth, they had to be carrying everything from thermometers to amputation kits to chloroform! Can you imagine a GP visiting your
home today with all of these tools?
Modern medicine has come a long way and thankfully so. It has changed how we view, seek and administer care, but home visits remain a huge part of that process, at least here in the UK. Things may be changing though, if we are to go by a recent article in the BBC (Nov 2019) that talked about GPs voting to reduce home visits, citing capacity issues. There may be lobbying efforts with the NHS to revamp home visit requirements altogether and there are divided camps on the issue.
But the power of a holistic healthcare continuum, one that includes telemedicine and home visits, cannot be denied. In fact, in a fast-paced world like today, not only do home visits help the elderly and the very sick and serve as the medical frontline, but they also provide a level of convenience in the face of longer working hours, long wait times and travel restrictions. Sometimes, the doctor has to come to you, which is why, at Gogodoc, our GPs are a click away.
To book a home visit in today’s world, all you have to do is download the GogoDoc app, and schedule an appointment for the SAME DAY (£75 for a home visit and £20 for tele or video conferencing). With average wait times at ONE HOUR, we beat the 2-week national average by well, about two weeks!
As the saying goes, the doctor will see you NOW, not in a fortnight.
Book your appointment today, and if you have, tell us about your experience in the comments below.