The National Home Doctor Service, which already services major metropolitan areas across Australia, launched in Bendigo and Ballarat last Monday.

Doctors equipped with basic medications are on call from 6pm weeknights until 8am the following morning. They are also available from noon on Saturdays, all day Sundays and all day public holidays. 

The service is bulk-billed.  

Bendigo and Ballarat general manager Tim Watts said the service was not a replacement for users’ regular GPs, but people who became acutely unwell outside clinic hours could seek help without the need to visit an emergency department. 

He said the service would prove popular as soaring summer temperatures complicated some people’s preexisting health problems.

"For the elderly who may be suffering in the heat wave, or managing multiple condiitions, a doctor will come out and take a look what's going on," he said. 

Bendigo residents are already calling upon the team of travelling doctors after just one week of operation. 

Kangaroo Flat resident Tara Mansfield dialled for help when her husband, Ben, became ill. 

Mr Mansfield had recently recovered from meningitis but his wife became alarmed after he developed a sore throat and migraine. 

With their three children already in bed, Ms Mansfield was thankful she didn't have to take a late night trip to the hospital.  

"It was so convenient not to have to get someone to come babysit the kids," Ms Mansfield said. 

The doctor arrived within 45 minutes of her call and stayed for 20 minutes to assess him. 

"He was lovely," she said. 

"He came in, sat down, checked my husband over, and wrote him up a script for antibiotics."

Visiting doctors’ notes are sent to the patient’s regular GP and added to their medical record.

National Home Doctors Service can be contacted on 13 SICK (13 7425).