If you are reading this, something has probably shifted. Mum is eating less, dad has had a fall he laughed off, the phone calls feel different, and getting either of them to a surgery involves a taxi, a flight of stairs and an argument. A private GP home visit exists for exactly this moment: a doctor comes to your parent’s home, sits with them for up to an hour, and gives you what families in this position actually need, a proper assessment and a clear plan. A daytime visit is £250, published on our fees page.
One thing first. If your parent has chest pain, new one-sided weakness or slurred speech, severe breathlessness, heavy bleeding, or has become suddenly and unusually drowsy or confused, call 999 now. New confusion in an older person can be sepsis or another emergency, and it does not wait for an appointment.
Why home is often the better consulting room
For a frail person, the journey to a clinic is not neutral. It is exhausting, it strips out dignity, and it shows the doctor a person at their worst in a room that tells them nothing. At home the picture is honest: how they move between rooms, what the stairs really involve, what is actually in the fridge, the carrier bag of medication boxes that never makes it to appointments. Falls risk, frailty and self-neglect are diagnosed by corridors and kitchens as much as by examination. An hour at home routinely surfaces what years of ten-minute clinic visits have missed.
What the visit covers
The doctor takes a full history, from your parent first, and with their permission from you, because families notice what patients minimise. Then a careful examination, and the housekeeping of good elderly medicine: blood pressure lying and standing, heart and chest, gait and balance, hydration, skin, and where indicated bloods taken there and then for a £20 draw fee plus the test price, with results back within 24 to 48 hours.
Almost always, the most valuable single item is the medication review. Many older Londoners take eight or more medicines, prescribed by different hands over the years, and polypharmacy is one of our particular clinical interests. The doctor goes through every box, what it is for, whether it is still earning its place, what might be causing the dizziness or the 4am wakefulness, and writes to the NHS GP where changes should be considered.
You finish with a written plan in plain English: what we found, what we recommend, what to watch for, and when to call again. Where a referral is right, a specialist letter is £50. Where ongoing support at home is the real need, we will say so honestly. Our sister company, Alpa Care Ltd, provides CQC-regulated home care, and because the GP and the care team sit under one roof, the medicine and the care can actually talk to each other. No pressure attaches to that sentence; many families simply need the assessment.
Consent, capacity and respect
A word about how we work, because it matters. Your parent is the patient, not you. The doctor talks to them, not across them, and their consent governs the visit. Most older patients have full capacity to make their own decisions, and where capacity is genuinely in question the doctor assesses it properly and follows the Mental Capacity Act, involving the family in the way the law and good practice intend. Adult children arrange most of these visits, and the arranging is welcome; the deciding belongs to the patient for as long as they can decide.
The practicalities
Call 020 8882 8088 and tell us about your parent. You do not need them beside you for that first call. We agree a time, usually within a day or two and same day where the situation needs it, subject to availability. A standard visit is £250 between 8am and 9pm, up to an hour; where the situation is more complex, an extended visit of up to two hours is £480. Night visits, £450, exist for the evenings that go wrong, and we have written about them in our guide to out of hours GP home visits. We visit across North and central London, and many families book a regular review visit, monthly or quarterly, so that someone with a long lens is watching the trajectory rather than the snapshot.
Frequently asked questions
Can I arrange a visit without telling my parent it was my idea?
You can arrange the practicalities, and we are tactful, but the doctor will be honest with your parent about why they are there and will need their agreement to proceed. It nearly always goes better than families fear.
Will the doctor talk to me afterwards?
With your parent’s consent, yes, and we encourage a family debrief as part of the hour. Where capacity is lacking, we involve family in line with the Mental Capacity Act and best-interests principles.
Can you liaise with their NHS GP?
Yes. With consent we write to the NHS practice with findings and recommendations, so the visit strengthens their usual care rather than sitting outside it.
What if my parent needs more than a doctor?
If what we find is really a care need, daily support, medication prompting, companionship, we will say so and explain options, including Alpa Care’s regulated service. The assessment stands on its own either way.
Do you do regular visits, not just one-offs?
Yes. Planned review visits are some of the most useful medicine we do for older patients, and packages for home and nursing home visiting are available; contact the clinic for those arrangements.
Worried about a parent? Call 020 8882 8088 and talk it through with us. Home visits £250 day, up to an hour, prices published on our fees page. Subject to availability.
Written by Dr Mitesh Parmar, MBBS MRCGP, GP and founder of Clinique Alpa, 466 Green Lanes, Palmers Green, London N13 5PA. General information, not personal medical advice. In an emergency call 999. For NHS advice call 111 or visit nhs.uk.