Home doctors fear the axe is about to fall on Medicare-funded, after-hours visits to millions of Australian households each year, resulting in after-hours patients being pushed towards already stretched hospital emergency departments.

The National Association for Medical Deputising Services is so concerned about the signals emanating from Health Minister Greg Hunt and his departmental bureaucrats, it has commissioned polling to gauge the popularity of the home visits - which have their own Medical Benefits Schedule numbers.

Television advertising is scheduled to start from this week.

It says the polling conducted on behalf of the organisation has found 74 per cent of Australians would view a reduced home-visits program as a violation of Mr Turnbull's no-cuts-to-Medicare pledge.