ABSTRACT
For these practices the evidence is of rates that have been steadily declining.
We fed back this data to a discussion group of some of the participating GPs. They identified the following reasons for the decline in home visiting:
• as a conscious coping strategy they were initiating fewer visits, for instance by doing less visiting of the elderly with chronic illness
• they were also more inclined to telephone patients who had requested a daytime home visit to see whether the visit was really necessary
• the introduction of the Sheffield GP cooperative for out-ofhours work in October 1996 had changed patients’ expectations towards home visiting. The greater emphasis the co-op had placed on accepting telephone advice or coming to their night
surgery had rubbed off on patients’ expectations during the daytime as well
• GPs were also now leaving more weekend and evening on-call cover to the co-op than they had done when the alternative was a commercial deputising service.
