BMJ 1995;311:1028 (14 October)

Letters

Service must change to deal with patients' reasonable demands

EDITOR,--Iona Heath's editorial on the problems of night visits omits one possible explanation for the rise in night calls, which is that an unmet need may have been caused by the reluctance of patients to call out their own doctor.1 My experience as a principal is that most calls are understandable and not frivolous.

I believe that, for example, a parent with a sick child has a right to see a doctor at any time of the day or night and that that doctor should be adequately qualified, not tired, and have reasonable facilities to examine the child. A cooperative can fulfil some of these requirements, especially if it has somewhere where the parents can take their child to in the evenings. The main reason for not being able to leave their home seems to be that other children would have to be left in bed when one parent (usually . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

General practice at night
Iona Heath
BMJ 1995 311: 466. [Extract] [Full Text]

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