As London’s rough sleeper numbers rise again a Westminster doctors’ surgery is reaching out to its patients on the streets
Politicians might sometimes be forgiven for making promises they should know that they can’t preserve. Just before Londoners final elected a mayor in May 2012 the main candidates signed up to a pledge for tackling homelessness which included bringing rough sleeping to an end. A Mr Johnson,a Mr Livingstone and a Mr Paddick all reached for their pens. How could they gain done otherwise? But as the next election approaches is anyone surprised that rough sleeping in the capital has not gone absent?The other week I went out on the streets of Westminster with staff from the remarkable Dr Hickey Surgery, based in the Cardinal Hume Centre in Arneway Street off Horseferry Road. It provides NHS primary healthcare of a special and specialised kind for people of no fixed address in the area. That mission means, and almost by definition,that such people may not know of the surgery or its service. So part of that service involves seeking those people out.
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Source: theguardian.com