| > I hoped to see that the author dealt more directly with the address problem. It's a hard problem, in part because you really need the state to address many of the problems with assuming fixed address. Instead of recognising the reality that people were people whether they had fixed address or not, the UK parliament decided to simply ban vagrancy [0]. Aspects of the act are still in force today. > Is there no way to set up free post boxes with a fixed address for those that need them? The currently governing party of the UK keeps parroting the line that "work is the best way out out of poverty" whilst passing laws and fostering policies that make that make life significantly harder for anybody homeless. It's quite likely that the anti-"illegal"-immigration[1] "hostile environment" policy would view giving addresses to homeless people without proving their right to accommodation would result in the standard £10,000 fine per person the home office claims isn't here legally. If an address was simply about receiving letters, then there is the Poste Restante service[2], which I only learnt of today. I suspect that few employers would accept that address and homeless people often don't have the proof of eligibility for work that they require. What was once a universal healthcare system is actually no longer: In England, General Practitioners are required to write to patients and remove them from the register if they do not confirm receipt of the letter. This means being homeless without an address means emergency-only care, at least according to policy. [3] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vagrancy_Act_1824 [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poste_restante#United_Kingdom [2] It actually affected a lot of people who were here legitimately. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windrush_scandal [3] There are actually out of hours services that will see you without a fixed address. There may also be some local clinics that reach out to homeless people, but this is not by any central policy and if certain newspapers covered this appalling abuse of hard-working taxpayer's money being potentially used for homeless illegal immigrants then it would be swiftly dealt with. |
I think you are misinformed
per https://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/AboutNHSservices/doctors/Docum...
Message to the GP Practice
Thank you for helping to register this patient. We hope the patient was able to show you relevant documents. NHS Guidelines say ‘If a patient cannot produce any supportive documentation but states that they reside within the practice boundary then practices should accept the registration’.
Please be aware that a homeless patient cannot be refused registration on the basis of where they reside because they are not in settled accommodation. For safety reasons they may need to change the places where they sleep rough on a daily basis. There is no regulatory requirement to prove identity, address, immigration status or an NHS number in order to register as a patient and no contractual requirement for GPs to request this.
Those who are homeless, vulnerably housed or ‘of no fixed abode’, asylum seekers, refugees and overseas visitors, whether lawfully in the UK or not, are eligible to register with a GP practice even if they have to pay for NHS services outside of the GP practice. The patient MUST be registered on application unless the practice has reasonable grounds to decline. GP practices have limited grounds on which they can turn down an application and these are;
if The commissioner has agreed that they can close their list to new patients.
The patient lives outside the practice boundary.