The kettle is still on. Someone has made a bed on the sofa because the stairs felt like a bad idea an hour ago. The NHS app has been opened and closed twice. What they are trying to decide is whether a doctor coming to this room is reasonable, or whether they should just wait until Monday.
A GP home visit London search usually starts there, not in an emergency bay. It is an assessment in the living room. It is not a blue light. The fee is published: £250 in the day, £450 at night, each up to an hour.
The real question is simpler than the search. Can you be examined properly here, or do you need an ambulance.
Chest pain, signs of a stroke, severe breathlessness, heavy bleeding, a severe allergic reaction or symptoms of sepsis need 999 or A&E immediately.
What a GP home visit London actually involves
The short version is this. A named doctor comes to you, takes a history, examines you, and leaves you with a plan. That time is the point. Nothing is rushed, because medicine done properly takes time.
I take a history first, in the chair you actually sit in. When this started. What changed in the last 24 hours, not what has been true for months. What you can still do: stairs, kettle, toilet, a conversation that holds. Who else is in the house, and whether they have already decided you are “a bit off” in a way they cannot name. Medicines on the sideboard tell me as much as the story on the phone. Boxes that should be empty and are not. Boxes that should still be full and are not.
What I look at when I arrive is the person and the room. Colour. Breathing at rest. Whether they sat up to greet me or stayed down. Ankles. The heat of the room. A relative who is doing the talking while the patient watches the floor. That last one is information. I still need the patient’s version, even if it comes slowly.
Then I examine you. Pulse, blood pressure, temperature, oxygen saturations when they add something. Chest, if the complaint is cough or breathlessness. Abdomen, if there is pain, vomiting, or a change in the bowels. Legs, if one is swollen, hot, or tight. A quick neurological look if speech, face, or power has changed, and if it has, the visit stops being a visit. That is 999, and we say so. I am not trying to complete a private appointment while an ambulance should already be moving.
The piece most people miss is what is being ruled out while the obvious thing is being addressed. A cough is also a clot on the chest until the picture says otherwise. Indigestion in a man who looks grey is not indigestion. Confusion in an older person is a urine infection until it is not, and it is also a stroke, a low sugar, and a missed medicine. The pattern matters more than the single reading.
You leave with a plan that you can repeat back. What I think this is. What would make me change my mind. What you take, if treatment is appropriate. What you watch for overnight. When to call us again, and when to stop calling us and dial 999. If a referral letter is needed, that is £50 after the assessment, not a paragraph invented at the door. If blood is needed, the draw is £20 plus the test, and we talk through the result rather than posting a printout into the void.
It is worth saying plainly: this is not an emergency service. We are a private GP practice in Palmers Green. If the right place is A&E, A&E is the right place. A doctor in your living room cannot run a CT, cannot thrombolyse, cannot put you on a monitor. What we can do is a proper assessment for the large middle of illness that is too much for a waiting room and not enough for a siren.
Who this is actually for
From our practice, the person who books is often not the person on the sofa. It is an adult child, a partner, a colleague in a hotel near the North Circular who does not have an NHS GP here. They are deciding, at a bad moment, whether bringing a doctor to the house is proportionate.
It is not proportionate when you can travel, the problem is a letter, and a 30 minute clinic appointment at £100 would do the same work in a room set up for it. Continuity still matters. You still see a named doctor. You just do not pay for the car and the hour on the doorstep. We will say so if that is the better fit. The same day private GP page is the clinic version of this decision, subject to the diary, not a promise we will squeeze everyone in.
When this is the wrong service
Routing, not drama. If any of these are true, do not wait for a private doctor to cross London.
- Chest pain, pressure, or pain that has moved into the jaw or arm.
- Face drop, arm weakness, or speech that has gone wrong, even if it is starting to come back.
- Breathing that makes speaking in full sentences impossible, or lips that look the wrong colour.
- A severe allergic reaction: swelling of the tongue or throat, wheeze, collapse.
- Heavy bleeding that is not slowing, or vomiting blood.
- A person who has fallen and cannot be woken, or who is confused in a way that is new and deepening, with fever, mottled skin, or they are not passing urine.
Those need 999 or A&E now. A published home visit fee is irrelevant in that hour.
Come to us sooner, rather than later, when the picture is the other kind of unwell. Worse over 24 to 48 hours. Not eating. Not drinking. A fever that is not the only thing in the room. A swollen leg. An older person whose medicines have gone messy. A child who is drinking and alert but not themselves, and you want them examined today rather than guessed about on the phone.
How a visit is arranged here
You call 020 8882 8088, or send a WhatsApp enquiry to 447742163571 without putting confidential medical detail in the thread. We need the address, the problem in 1 or 2 sentences, and whether this might be the 999 kind. If it might, we say so on that call.
If a visit is the right shape, you get a named doctor and a time. Not a call centre script, and not “someone will be with you.” Up to an hour in the house. Day visits £250, night visits £450, Monday to Friday as published on the appointments and fees page. Clinic is 30 minutes for £100 if you can come to 466 Green Lanes. We agree the fee before anyone sets off. That is a principle here, not a detail.
I examine. I explain what I think, including the bit I do not know yet. Sometimes the next move is watchful waiting with a check in at 48 hours. Sometimes it is bloods. Sometimes it is a letter the same day. Sometimes it is “I want you in A&E, and I will tell them why.” You should be able to tell a relative the plan in 2 sentences. If you cannot, I have not finished.
Read how home visiting GP appointments work if you want the service page rather than this explanation.
If they cannot be woken, or the breathing has gone wrong, you already know the number. It is 999.
A named doctor, in your living room, with the fee said in advance. Read our fees page, or call 020 8882 8088. Home visits £250 day, £450 night, published in full. In an emergency call 999. Subject to availability.
Written by Dr Mitesh Parmar, MBBS MRCGP, GP and founder of Clinique Alpa, 466 Green Lanes, Palmers Green, London N13 5PA. This article is general information, not personal medical advice. In an emergency call 999. For NHS advice call 111 or visit nhs.uk.