Local homeless to benefit from volunteer health workers who are all 'HART'

Local homeless people will be able to access health monitoring, support and advice thanks to a new scheme where doctors, nurses and other health workers will go in to homeless drop ins and soup kitchens.

The scheme, delivered by the Homeless Alliance Response Team, HART, involves volunteer health workers giving up their time to deliver care at Champness Hall soup kitchen on Drake Street on Tuesday and Thursday evenings before it is rolled out to other voluntary set ups, like hostels and day care centres in Heywood and Middleton.

A flu vaccination session was delivered by volunteer doctors back in December at Champness Hall soup kitchen and this indicated there was an appetite for health support at venues like these.

Now 50 GPs, nurses, allied health professionals including therapists, clinical pharmacists and mental health workers have all volunteered to offer their clinical services to support the scheme that is being co-ordinated by Rochdale Health Alliance using funds provided by NHS Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) for the 12 month pilot.

Middleton GP and Chairperson of Rochdale Health Alliance, Dr Mo Jiva, said: “Unfortunately there are increasing numbers of people in the borough who are homeless and live transient lifestyles who often also have substance misuse, mental health and dependency problems.

"These chaotic lifestyles means that many rarely access health services at traditional venues like GP surgeries.

"Our scheme takes the health care and support to them in venues where and when they regularly attend.

"We are confident that in time this scheme will improve the health and wellbeing of these  individuals, helping to manage their own health better whilst reducing the extent to which they rely on emergency services.”

CCG Chief Executive Simon Wootton said: “We have funded this important new scheme to allow for the co-ordination of the service which will run on a rota basis for clinical volunteers.

"Homeless and transient people all too often fall between the gaps of traditional health services, so they either receive no care at all or they migrate to A&E departments when they often don’t need this level of service.

"It is thanks to the good will of local doctors, nurses and other health workers that we will be able to go some way to plugging this gap for this vulnerable group, who are often in greater need of health advice and support than other groups.”

The free service will include:

• Face to face advice and assessments
• Health screening such as blood pressure and pulse testing
• Measuring weight
• Medication and prescription reviews
• Wound care
• Vaccinations
• Mental health screening
• Drug and alcohol screening

The scheme will also offer the individuals a ‘healthcare passport’, to be carried by the individual, which contains a brief medical summary, with details such as vaccination dates, to help other health and social care providers.

The pilot will scope the services that are taken up by the homeless people, as well as monitoring the impact on health and traditional health services.