GPs overturn scheme to cut out-of-hours visits.

UK out-of-hours providers monitor the number of GP home visits and the success of telephone consultations.

A scheme to reduce out-of-hours home visits by GPs has been withdrawn amid complaints from GPs.

Many out-of-hours providers across the UK, such as On Call Care in Kent and Urgent Care 24 in Liverpool, monitor the number of home visits GPs carry out and the proportion of calls GPs can resolve over the telephone to assess performance.

But the East of England Ambulance Service, which runs out-of-hours care in Norfolk and Essex, put such restrictions on eligibility for home visits that elderly patients were forced to travel to an out-of-hours …