Fewer GP house calls as younger doctors turn to health centres

Traditional family doctors who carry out home visits are becoming increasingly rare, as younger doctors opt for health centre jobs rather than private practice, a veteran family doctor said.

“I believe that the old-fashioned family doctor who does house visits is a dying breed,” John Gauci, who has been working as a family doctor for 47 years, told Times of Malta.

“Part of being a traditional private family doctor should involve being in a continued relationship with the family unit,” he said. “When you work privately, one of the ways to keep a patient loyal is accessibility.”

Gauci, one of the founders of the Malta College of Family Doctors, attributed the trend primarily to younger doctors opting to work in the public sector at health centres.

Although health centres are crucial in offering free healthcare, doctor-patient relationships there are not optimal, which is essential for a holistic approach to primary healthcare, an important part of which is preventive medical care, Gauci added.

“I believe that personal care can never truly be achieved when there isn’t one doctor assigned to the patient. The patient could end up becoming part of the system. This doesn’t mean that it cannot be achieved at health centres in the future with the help of technology,” he said.

Doctors tend to prefer seeing patients in clinics, as clinics offer more services and point-of-care tests than house visits

At the same time, family doctors from his generation are dwindling and house visits are becoming increasingly taxing, especially due to traffic.

“Traffic is not the main reason why home visits have reduced but it is definitely an added reason not to do them,” he said, noting that age and overall workload have made outcalls more demanding.

While patients still find house calls convenient, Gauci said such visits have declined and are now only carried out when necessary.

From a younger generation of doctors, Francesca Vassallo La Ferla, a family medicine doctor in training, said the decline in house visits reflects broader shifts in how healthcare is delivered.

Having worked at health centres for nine months, she noted that the number of visits decline at a time when healthcare becomes increasingly accessible.

“There are more pharmacies, more hospitals and more physicians. It is much easier to see a doctor now than it was in the past. Doctors also tend to prefer seeing patients in clinics, as clinics offer more services and point-of-care tests than house visits,” she said.

However, Vassallo La Ferla clarified that health centres still provide house visits whenever necessary, such as when a patient is housebound. Health clinics are improving their systems to follow up more effectively with patients, she pointed out.