Abstract
When did you last see a health visitor? When did you last communicate with a health visitor? These seem apt questions given the evidence from a recent survey of health visitors by the Institute of Health Visiting (iHV); (Working with GPs Survey, unpublished, London, 2016. For further information contact Dr C Adams, Director, iHV). The evidence shows great variability in contact between health visitors (HVs) and GPs in England: of 1179 respondents, 23% of HVs saw a GP at least once a week; 33% 1–2 times a month, and 33% less frequently or hardly ever. In this editorial we review the recent history of health visiting and how, in particular in England, we have arrived at the current situation where HVs, once considered essential members of the wider (non-practice employed) primary health care team (PHCT),1 are now so detached that at a recent meeting (ICCHNR Symposium, University of Kent, September, 2016), a GP could say that they, HVs, are ‘out there somewhere’ but where seemed to be a mystery to him and possibly others.
