Homelessness in primary care: more specialist practitioners and services are crucial

Howard highlights the work of homelessness specialist GPs and the multidisciplinary teams with whom they work.1Pathway works with many of the 28 primary care based specialist services for this group in England, and many others identified in a recent mapping exercise.2 There are also 18 multidisciplinary hospital in-reach services in England and Wales working to the Pathway model who find, support, and plan improved discharge arrangements for people experiencing homelessness, aiming to break the cycle of admission to street discharge to admission. Our first annual report on the work of eight of those teams shows they improve people’s hospital experience and health outcomes, and also reduce by half the number returning to rough sleeping. This can be the start of a different trajectory for a person’s life and health.3A major challenge for such services is recruiting and retaining staff—service contracts are short and the future always uncertain. Our Homeless and…
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