Friday 25 January 2019

‘We predict more deaths’: GPs on the frontline of UK homelessness crisis

‘We predict more deaths’: GPs on the frontline of UK homelessness crisis A day in a specialist homeless GP practice in London reveals some of the struggles staff have helping their migrant patients

Dr Dana Beale suspects the woman sitting in front of her has bowel cancer. She’s already complained of pain and bleeding when she goes to the toilet and Beale, a GP, has referred her for a hospital appointment. The woman is glad but also hesitant and asks whether she might have to pay for the appointment. Beale says yes.

The woman starts to cry. She is Roma and is in the UK alone, living rough on the streets of Westminster after she was lured here by a man promising work. She is destitute and doesn’t speak English; Beale is communicating with her using a telephone interpreting service. Beale worries the woman is at risk of being exploited as a slave, like some of her other patients. The Guardian

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