Concern over healthcare access for homeless people

Before it closed, the Hanley walk-in clinic saw about 80 patients a day

Homeless people may be struggling to access healthcare in Stoke-on-Trent after proposals for dedicated NHS services were scrapped, councillors fear.

Hanley Primary Care Access Hub was closed in 2022 to save the NHS £1.2m a year, and during a consultation it was suggested rough sleepers who used it would have access to a new outreach service instead.

That has not happened, with concern among members of a city council committee that some vulnerable people are now unable to get help.

Health bosses said that while no additional funding had gone into NHS services for homeless people in the city since 2022, existing provision was considered appropriate.

Before it closed, the Hanley walk-in clinic in Stafford Street saw about 80 patients a day, including homeless people and others unable to get a GP appointment elsewhere.

Councillor Chandra Kanneganti, a member of the adult social care, health integration and wellbeing committee, said: “There was a document produced during the consultation over the closure of the access hub. In that document it clearly says that for people experiencing homelessness there will be a new, enhanced homeless primary care service, set up with the money saved.

"It says it will have an outreach service, a mobile clinic and a vaccination service – none of this has been commissioned so far," he said.

Mr Kanneganti added: “The only homeless health service we have is commissioned by the council. There has been nothing new commissioned... for homeless people with the money that was saved.”

Budget pressures

Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board (ICB), which commissions NHS services, insisted that homeless people in Stoke-on-Trent were still able to access other GP practices just like anyone else.

ICB officials told the committee that proposals for the new homeless health services had only been suggested during the consultation and had never featured in a "decision document".

Paul Edmondson-Jones, chief medical officer at the ICB, also said that budgetary pressures meant the NHS could not provide every service people wanted.

The council committee agreed to look into whether homeless people in Stoke-on-Trent were currently accessing alternative health services, including A&E, with the potential for any evidence found being put to the ICB.

The members also called on health bosses to notify them of any future decisions taken after a consultation.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.