Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what guidance his Department has given to GPs on emergency home visits during Winter 2016-17.

Detailed best practice guidance was made available to local systems to support implementation of the 2016/17 Accident & Emergency (A&E) Improvement plan. This guidance was a collection of best practice models for local systems to identify which would be most effective for them to implement in support of their A&E Improvement Plans, rather than a formal nationally issued piece of guidance for all local systems to adopt in its entirety.

This guidance advises that general practitioners should respond appropriately to requests for home visits. General practices should have processes in place to respond to and prioritise requests for urgent home visits, usually through early telephone assessment and a duty doctor rota. Again, this is for local determination.