A medical service for people experiencing homelessness is coming to Melbourne

A new medical service that provides free healthcare to people experiencing homelessness will be established in the CBD in September.

Street Side Medics (SSM) is a weekly service that functions as a mobile general practice. Vans are retrofitted with medical equipment and provide a range of medical services on a weekly basis in areas with demographically high concentrations of homelessness.

It was founded by Dr Daniel Nour in 2020, and it has since supported thousands of patients across NSW. The clinic in Melbourne’s CBD will be the first in Victoria.

Dr Nour, who was named Australian of the Year in 2022, told CBD News that bringing the service to Melbourne has been on his mind for some time due to the prevalence of homelessness in the CBD.

According to the last Census, 30,660 Victorians were experiencing some form of homelessness, with Melbourne’s inner-city notable for a higher proportion of people experiencing rough sleeping and living in improvised dwellings.

The clinic will be located in front of the The Salvation Army’s Melbourne Project 614 site alongside their evening Twilight Cafe service.

The clinic will open on September 5 and will run at this same location each week from 5.30pm to 7.30pm, providing a range of general practice services. Bulk billing is also available.

However, for those without Medicare or experiencing any other limitations, SSM has a no-turn-away policy and attends to all patients free of charge.

“You don’t need anything. All we need is a name and we create a patient record and then we go from there,” Dr Nour told CBD News.

The services include but are not limited to immunisations, pathology services, health examinations, diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions, screening tests and referrals to appropriate medical specialists.

“By providing our walk-in service at the same location weekly, our aim is to not only improve the catchment of patients but also, to build rapport with them as we attend to their healthcare concerns,” Dr Nour said.

Now with more than 600 volunteers and multiple customised vans, SSM also works in partnership with partner organisations to provide people experiencing homelessness with numerous essential services such as food and laundry.

But despite the organisation’s interstate growth, its path to success was laden with adversity, with Dr Nour told repeatedly that it was destined for failure.

During his final year as a medical student living in Central London at the age of 24, Dr Nour came up with the idea for Street Side Medics after he provided first aid to a man having a seizure.

Once the paramedics arrived, he spoke with the man’s friends who said that he had been having seizures for many months.

However, when Dr Nour asked whether he had been to see a neurologist or GP, to which they laughed at the suggestion of seeking help.

After learning of the struggles homeless people in England had accessing healthcare, Dr Nour researched Australia’s healthcare system and was dumbfounded to find out that despite being one of the best in the world it was fraught with accessibility issues.

“There are a number of significant and challenging barriers that limit access to healthcare for people experiencing homelessness,” Dr Nour said.

“We’ve found the barriers to accessing services by the homeless include lack of awareness of available services, prohibitive costs, lack of transport, the level of documentation required, stigma and embarrassment, previous negative experiences and distrust.”

But thanks to Dr Nour’s efforts, these barriers have been reduced, and with 12 clinics across New South Wales and Melbourne’s first SSM clinic opening in September, the young doctor’s dream of providing the service nationally is etching closer to reality.

In addition to the mobile clinics, SSM also has a research and education division.

The research division is led by a specialised nurse focussed on collecting data on the plight of Australians experiencing homelessness specific to their access to primary healthcare.

The education division meanwhile aims to shape the way future generations see homelessness by working with primary schools and high schools as well as tertiary teaching facilities.

Dr Nour said he was also pleased to announce SSM was developing a training division, which will identify suitable candidates who are experiencing homelessness for training and potential employment. •