Daily home visiting in one general practice: a longitudinal study of patient-initiated workload.

New requests for home visits performed by one general practitioner were recorded every weekday over 13 years from 1977 to 1989. Overall, a steady reduction in patient-initiated demand for visits was seen. However, longitudinal analysis by age showed that this was statistically significant only in patients aged under 65 years, for whom there was a 71% decrease. There was no significant change in the rates of visits requested for elderly (65-74 years old) and very elderly (75 years and over) patients. In the last year of the study 75% of daily visiting was requested by 18% of the patients, that is by the elderly and very elderly, a sector of the population which is increasing. The findings challenge the prediction that home visits will decline until they eventually disappear. General practitioners in the UK still need to maintain a domiciliary service to their elderly patients.