Home Doctor Services
In The Comfort Of Your Own Home
Home doctor services are incredibly important service for our community. They provide bulk billed, after hours, GP services in your home.
There have been several times if we couldn’t get a home visit doctor to come to us we would have unnecessarily taken our children to hospital. Because when you have a child who’s obviously very sick or in a lot of pain – especially if you don’t know what’s wrong – you want them seen as soon as possible.
Which is why it’s so important that this essential service, that is currently under threat, remains available and fully funded.
One time we called a home doctor service for our daughter was when she had a throat infection. She’d been screaming in pain for hours. We didn’t know what was wrong. She wouldn’t feed and she couldn’t sleep. She just kept crying. And we were starting to seriously worry. We called our local home doctor service, and a doctor arrived at our home within a couple of hours to check her out. He gave us a bottle of baby Panadol from his car as we’d run out in the middle of the night, and a prescription for antibiotics.
The absolutely last thing anyone needed was for us to have to drag her out in the middle of the night to take her to the hospital. Because while it was serious – and she did need to be seen urgently – it wasn’t an emergency.
House Call Doctor recently reached out to me and I took the opportunity to ask some questions about the services home doctors provide.
When should parents call a home doctor their child?
What should they expect when they call a home doctor service ?
Who can use a home doctor service?
“Everyone is able to request a visit from an after-hours doctor, and in 2017 more Australians have access to home visit GPs than ever before. House call doctors have become an important part of community healthcare, and that’s why the Protect Home Visits campaign is so essential.
If house call doctors are not able to provide bulk-billed services through Medicare, or our operations are otherwise restricted, many Australian families will be impacted. The majority of our patients are parents requesting after-hours medical care for their children, who would otherwise have to wait in busy Emergency rooms.
For now, a visit from an after-hours doctor is 100% bulk-billed for all Australians who have a Medicare or DVA (Department of Veteran’s Affair) Card. Certain home visit services also provide medical care to international visitors who are travelling with insurance from Medibank Private, Allianz, Bupa or NIB. ”
House Call Doctors cover more areas in Queensland than any other home doctor service, alternatively contact 13SICK for a nation wide home doctor service.