A family doctor has been saddened by reacted with sadness to calls from a leading GP that doctors should refuse to visit sick children at home.

Dr Justin Amery, based a GP at Bury Knowle Health Centre, Headington, Oxford, said London GP that Dr Michael Barrie had gone too far in accusing GPs of wasting NHS money by visiting pandering to parents who did not could not be bothered to take their children into the surgery.

Dr Barrie, a GP in Kingston-upon-Thames in London, said: "If someone rang a vet and said their mouse was sick and would he come and see it, the vet would laugh. In crude terms, children are as transportable as pets.

"The most common reason for parents demanding a home visit is that they have no car but I think that's feeble.

"They've got neighbours, friends and family who could give them a lift, and if not they could always spend a couple of pounds on a minicab.

"Even the poorest families have enough money to buy cigarettes and beer, so why can't they afford to transport their child to the doctor?"

In a letter to the medical journal Pulse, Dr Barrie added: "A home visit to a child is never justified, whatever the social circumstances or ultimate diagnosis."

But Dr Amery, who also works with sick and terminally ill children at Helen House Hospice in east Oxford, said home visits were a vital part of a GPs work.

He said: "I think it should be part of the service that GPs provide.

"Having two children myself and knowing how anxious you can be when your children are sick, it's very important that parents know they have easy access to their doctors.

"There are times when children really are too sick to come out to visit their GP and visiting children at home is part of what we do."

He added: "Hopefully we are not at the stage where we have to drag sick children out of bed unnecessarily."

Story date: Friday 29 January

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