21 October 2008

Homeless people face a double whammy when it comes to health. Not only do they tend to have poorer physical and mental health than others, but they also face greater difficulties in accessing health care when they need it.

Homeless people often face difficulties registering with a GP. As a result, they make greater use of hospital A&E departments, where they frequently encounter stigma and a service that lacks understanding of their particular needs.

Up until now, experiences of homeless people using the NHS have largely been ignored. But a new initiative being launched by the national umbrella organisation, Homeless Link, in partnership with the award-winning social enterprise Patient Opinion, aims to use the web to bring the voices of homeless patients into the heart of the NHS - and in so doing improve services for everyone.

The scheme to enable homeless people to put their feedback on the web is being led by a group of “early adopter” homelessness services in London. Each service will help homeless clients to give their feedback either on paper, or directly onto Patient Opinion’s web site. From there, the feedback will be published for anyone to see, and where possible will also be sent electronically to just the NHS managers who need to see it.

If the pilot scheme is successful, the feedback service will be made freely available to homelessness services across the UK.

Jenny Edwards, Chief Executive of Homeless Link: “We are delighted to be involved in this revolutionary and innovative project. Homeless people are too often treated as if they do not have the same rights to health care as other people and it is time that changed. Patient Opinion offers a real opportunity for the experience of the most vulnerable in our society to be heard. We will be lobbying for this to lead to real service improvement. Services that meet the needs of the most vulnerable well will be excellent services for everyone. There will be no excuses in the future for people to be ignorant of the real issues that have to be tackled to make health services genuinely available to all.”

Paul Hodgkin, chief executive of Patient Opinion, said: “The web offers extraordinary potential to make even the quietest voices count. And it is only by listening to its patients - including those who are homeless - that the NHS will keep improving.”

Dean Harris from New Horizon Youth Centre echoed these views. He said, “Patient Opinion enables homeless people to have a voice and an opinion about the mainstream services that they feel excluded from in hospitals and GP surgeries. Not only can they point out any faults or bad treatment they may receive, but also they can thank nurses for any kind treatment they receive and our staff can assist them to speak out which will help improve literacy and build self-esteem. We will definitely be encouraging our clients to utilise this service whenever appropriate.”

ENDS Notes to editors 1. Homeless Link is the national umbrella organisation for frontline homelessness services in the UK. Our vision is to end rough sleeping in this country by the time the Olympics come to Britain in 2012.

Our two goals are:

• To raise standards in the services that support homeless people and tackle homelessness • To influence the development of policy, strategy and investment at all levels of government

2. Patient Opinion is a social enterprise, which has pioneered new approaches to patient and public involvement in the NHS through the web. The Patient Opinion web site (www.patientopinion.org.uk) allows anyone to share the story of their health care. Patient Opinion aims to direct the feedback to those in the NHS who need to see it, and get a response. The service won a New Statesman New Media Award in July 2008.
3. For further information or for an interview, please contact any of:

Dr Paul Hodgkin, Chief Executive, Patient Opinion W: 0114 281 6256. m: 0794 646 3698

Dr James Munro, Director of Research, Patient Opinion W: 0114 281 6256. m: 07736 944 798

Gill Perkins, Head of Communications, Homeless Link W: 020 7960 3025. m: 07881 921476