Homeless Health GP

NWL has the largest homeless population in London. This population faces fundamental inequalities in outcomes, experience, and access - with multiple, long term, under-treated health needs and do not always get the care they need from the health and care system. People experiencing homelessness have six times more A&E presentations, are admitted to hospital four times more often, and stay three times as long as the general population. In hospital, they are likely to be poorly identified, experience delays once medically fit for discharge, and are at high risk of discharge to the street, readmission and poor overall health outcomes. We have received confirmation from the NWL ICB that a business case has been approved to fund a new specialist hospital Homeless Health team up until 31st March 2029. The Homeless Health team works in close partnership with the wards to identify people experiencing homelessness whilst they are in hospital, build therapeutic relationships with them, assist the ward multidisciplinary team to maximise the benefit of these admissions, and then support these vulnerable patients during and after discharge - ensuring that they are fully linked in to all the health care and support services they need when the team finally discharges them. The GP role works to improve the care for homeless patients in hospital, to drive up the quality of the care they receive during a hospital stay, and to improve their quality-of-life following discharge.