Coronavirus: Homelessness

(asked on 16th March 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that homeless people are able to receive a covid-19 vaccine as quickly as possible.


Answered by
Nadhim Zahawi Portrait
Nadhim Zahawi
This question was answered on 22nd March 2021

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) recognises that many people who are homeless or sleeping rough are likely to have underlying health conditions which would place them in priority group six. These are likely to be under-diagnosed or not properly reflected in general practitioner (GP) records. The JCVI advised they should be offered the vaccine without the need for a National Health Service number or GP registration.

There is work being undertaken to update our operational guidance on reaching rough sleepers and homeless people based on this recent JCVI advice. The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government are working closely with NHS England and NHS Improvement to support outreach and further work is being done to explore the availability of effective on-street models which could be used to support this work. Local teams are now prioritising all homeless people for vaccination alongside priority group six.

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