Medical Services at Home
If your health conditions make it impossible for you to leave your home, the National Health Service offers you medical treatment at home. Home treatments are a form of health assistance offered to patients in the comfort of their own home. These treatments are carried out by their GP or by other National Health Service professionals, for example nurses and therapists, and by the local associations of volunteers.
The aims of home treatments, which differ from home visits, are:
to guarantee ongoing healthcare
to facilitate the the patient's independence, or its recovery
to facilitate the recovery of the patient's ability to develop social relationships
to improve the patient's quality of life
to support the patient's family members during treatments
Home treatments are organised by GPs, nurses, and the doctors in charge of the local medical services.
GPs' tasks include:
primary medical care
development of a therapy or rehabilitation program
coordination of home treatments
The doctors in charge of the Local Health Authority cooperate with the GP; the doctors decide together whether home treatments are necessary and, together with the nurses, develop an assistance program for the patient.
There are four different kinds of general nursing assistance: preventative (avoiding future illness), curative (curing current illness), palliative (treating ongoing illness) and rehabilitative (helping a patient to adjust after an illness).
The nurse's tasks include:
determining, together with the other medical practitioners, the kind of assistance that the patient requires
guaranteeing that any medical instructions given by other practitioners are carried out
planning the treatments
The entire medical team plays a very important role in ensuring the success of home treatments; however, this kind of care is only effective if the patients and their families are motivated and actively involved.
For more information, see:
