Making opportunities to improve health more accessible
A mobile GP surgery that provides support such as vaccinations and screenings to the homeless community.
Peterborough, England
NHS Charities Together provided the funding needed to launch the bus.
Addenbrooke's Charitable Trust and Light Project Peterborough launched The Health Outreach Bus to help people who struggle to use health services.
The bus is a mobile GP surgery that brings healthcare to anyone experiencing homelessness in Peterborough.
Jorge volunteers on the bus. Having once been homeless himself, he knows how valuable the service is. He said:
"An hour on the streets feels like a week, especially at night-time because it’s not safe. You’re sleeping in a tent and not properly.
"Your self-esteem is already really low, you walk into the GP and see other people looking at you and it makes you give up looking for help.
“The van gives you the privacy and it's mobile, so it can go anywhere."
Dr Varney is a GP who works on the bus. She said:
"There have been a couple of patients I have come across who have severe learning difficulties that have never been diagnosed. As a result, they have slipped under the radar.
"They wouldn’t have been able to access healthcare services, so without a service like this that is actively going to places where homeless people will go to seek basic necessities that’s where we can bring in these really vulnerable people. I have managed to get them assessed for their learning disabilities and things like that.
"Some notable outcomes I have picked up are patients I am managing to build a positive relationship of trust with. They are learning that the GP service is there for them, and they know there is a safe space they can come to."
Watch the video below to learn more.
