Benefits of Home Doctor Visits After Hours in Australia

It's hard to imagine having to leave the house when you or someone you love is sick and the clinic hours are already over. It's stressful enough to have to pack up a sick kid in the middle of the night, help an elderly parent into the car when they're weak, or just drag yourself out of bed when you don't feel well.

After-hours home doctor visits are a comforting and highly effective solution to such problems. The doctor, therefore, comes to you, bringing professional medical care right to your doorstep, rather than you having to go to the doctor. Besides being a mere convenience, this service offers considerable health benefits. The home-visit doctor experience at 13CURE gives you access to care in the place you feel most relaxed and safe.

It is an essential component of integrating the Australian healthcare system, helping ensure you receive the proper care at the right place. If you need urgent medical care after hours, this article will familiarise you with the benefits of a home doctor visit.

After-hours home doctor services represent a lifeline in Australia's urban medical care system. They serve as a safety net, opening when everyone else is closed. Nighthours, weekends, and holidays are when these services take care of you. You never have to be in a situation where a doctorless emergency can cause stress or harm. 

Importantly, these facilities are not merely substitutes but companions of your regular doctor. Hence, on the next working day, your doctor will receive a detailed letter outlining your visit, thereby facilitating coordinated care and a complete medical history.

Why Choose a Home Doctor After-Hours Care?

Deciding to visit your home means choosing the most comfortable way, reducing stress, and receiving personalised attention in a place where you feel most secure. The most obvious benefit is that you don't have to move when you feel unwell.

Mothers with ill children are the great beneficiaries of this. It means that a fever-bound, slumbering child cannot be woken or that the whole family cannot be disturbed for a late-night clinic trip. The elderly and handicapped are relieved from the physical challenge and fear associated with leaving home, and necessary health measures are made more accessible.

In addition, you are out of the stressful, nerve-racking environment of a crowded clinic or hospital waiting room. Being at home means relaxing in a comfortable and familiar setting, which is particularly helpful when feeling weak. Additionally, it minimises the risk of contracting another disease circulating in public waiting areas.

Explore more about after-hours care in our blog.

Medical Benefits of Home Visits for Families

Aside from the major convenience, having a doctor at home offers some notable clinical benefits that may lead to better health outcomes. A significant advantage for parents is avoiding disrupting a sick child's sleep to travel to a clinic.

A home-visit doctor can perform a complete physical examination, which cannot be done over the phone or via video. For instance, if the patient has a respiratory infection, the doctor must listen to the patient's chest. In addition, if a child's ear infection or abdominal pain requires palpation, the physical examination will provide the basis for an accurate diagnosis. High-standard medical care is guaranteed when a doctor comes to your place and has all the necessary equipment, just as in a clinic, for a complete consultation.

Besides that, the patient's environment can give a doctor clues about the patient's lifestyle and even exceptional situations, which can be very important for holistic health care. With this kind of patient-centred approach, the doctor can adjust the treatment and provide more effective advice, thereby establishing a closer doctor-patient relationship based on trust and a better understanding of the patient's needs.

Ways in Which Home Visits are Beneficial to the Healthcare System

After-hours doctor home service is a vital component of the Australian healthcare system. By providing a convenient, accessible option for urgent, non-emergency care, they effectively alleviate the heavy burden on hospital emergency departments.

For example, patients with symptoms like fever, minor injuries, or simple infections who are quickly cared for at home will help hospital emergency departments clear those cases, allowing staff to attend to the real-life emergencies that require immediate and intensive care. Home visits are designed to complement your regular GP's care, not replace it, by filling the after-hours gap.

What makes this even more significant is the fact that elderly Australians stand to benefit most from such timely home visits. Apart from making the process of condition management before it gets out of hand easier, it can also save them from the prolonged wait and discomfort of hospital visits, as well as the health risks that come with hospital stays.

Although home visits could solve most problems, telehealth is also a good option outside work hours. A telehealth consultation is ideally made to address situations where a physical check-up is unnecessary.

Some of the reasons why you should take up telehealth include:

• Seeking medical advice and getting reassurance.
• Renewal of prescriptions.
• Mental health support.
• Visual assessment of the skin rash.

If the doctor needs to put their ear to the patient's chest, check the ears, or feel the abdomen, then a home visit is obviously the more appropriate and logical option.

13CURE and others that provide medical deputising services allow you to consider them your regular GP's most trusted partners. Such services are certified, have qualified doctors registered with AHPRA on board, and are focused on delivering top-quality, continuous care in line with the standards set by renowned bodies such as the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP). Going for an accredited service doesn't deviate from your regular healthcare path; instead, you access a hassle-free extension.

The majority of Australians are willing to pay for after-hours home doctor services because they are very affordable. In essence, well-organised home doctor services are mostly bulk-billed for holders of valid Medicare or Department of Veteran's Affairs (DVA) cards.

Bulk billing refers to a situation in which the service is billed directly to Medicare, and the patient incurs no out-of-pocket expenses for the consultation. In this way, it eliminates the financial barriers that prevent people from accessing care, so no one who needs medical help will have to worry about the costs. It is always prudent to check the billing policy before booking your appointment.

Medicare is Australia's universal health insurance that helps cover the cost of seeing a doctor.