Decline in number of home visits to elderly people by general practitioners

For years it has been visible, that the number of home visits by GPs to the elderly has been decreasing. This decline accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Even after the restrictions were scaled down, the number of home visits remained low. This is shown by joint research of research institute Nivel and the Dutch Healthcare Authority, recently published in British Journal of General Practice (BJGP) Open.

The total number of home visits by general practitioners decreased by 32% between 2017 and 2023, with the largest decrease during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020). In particular, the number of short home visits decreased. The number of home visits fell more sharply in some groups of people than others. This is related to factors such as age, gender, having multiple health problems (so-called multimorbidity) and socioeconomic position. The number of home visits for intensive GP care, often focused on palliative care, actually increased by 12% over the same period. This was possibly due to home visits to elderly people with COVID infection.

From Declining number of home visits to older adults by general practitioners - an observational study using data from electronic health records in the Netherlands; 2017-2023: Number of short and long home visits, and home visits for intensive care per 1,000 persons by general practitioners to adults aged 65 years or older, based on data from the Nivel Primary Care Database.

 
About the research

Nivel collects and analyses the data that healthcare providers routinely record in their electronic medical records. The numbers in this study are based on data from about 400 GP practices registered with the Nivel Primary Care Database. The number of home visits was calculated by age (65 to 79 years and over 80 years), gender, multimorbidity and people registered with the GP and living in a postal code area classified as a disadvantaged neighbourhood as an indicator of socioeconomic position.