Providing healthcare and screening for asylum seekers residing in short term accommodation in Hounslow

The ICB Borough Team in Hounslow, alongside Little Park Surgery in Feltham have worked in collaboration to co-design, deliver at pace, and continually evaluate a new model of delivering outreach healthcare for asylum seekers residing in short term hotel accommodation in the borough. These sites are different than the IACs commissioned by the Home Office, and are an “overnight” initial accommodation prior to dispersal into IAC hotels around the country. When established, there was no specialist healthcare provision commissioned for these settings, which despite being intended for overnight stays could see people residing for up to a period of weeks with no healthcare access. As such, the system started to see significant demand on 111, 999, UTC and ED, including for routine and minor primary care issues as no one yet had NHS numbers so could not register with GPs. The ICB and the local practices worked together to design a model of on-site care delivery in the hotels, to build trust and rapport with the residents, to support them with immediate and necessary healthcare needs.

The service has been successful not only in improving individuals' welfare, improving immediate access to healthcare upon arrival into the UK, but A&E attendances from hotel are now down by more than 60%, with improved 111 call handling rates too. The team have worked together with Public Health to improve access to NHS numbers, catch ups to the UK immunisation schedule, and providing immediate and necessary care for individuals in these settings, including communicable disease response in collaboration with UKHSA. This has also allowed identification of need prior to dispersal into hotels around the country. Patient feedback has been very positive also.

The learning from this service has helped to shape service design across NW London for this cohort