Sunday Mirror

NURSES’ PLEA ON HOMELESS DEATH SHOCK

Calls for funds as toll hits 726

- BY ALAN SELBY

NURSES today make an urgent plea for action on homelessne­ss as new figures show two rough sleepers died every day last year.

The Royal College of Nursing wants to reverse cuts to addiction, mental health and other support services so 726 preventabl­e deaths can be stopped.

The Office for National Statistics figure doubled in six years. Drug deaths rose 55 per cent.

The funding call comes from thousands of nurses working in homeless health.

In an open letter to the Sunday Mirror, they say: “In a civilised society, it should be unacceptab­le for anyone to have to sleep on the streets, let alone die there. We meet patients, tend to wounds, deliver mental health interventi­ons, provide welfare advice and even cancer care.

“We feel deep shame for the indignity these people are put through, in life and death. And we also feel anger because many of these deaths are preventabl­e.

“Local authority budgets have been slashed. Raids on the public health grant resulted in swingeing cuts to drug and alcohol addiction services and mental health support.

“Our patients cannot be left to endure another winter in which the patient we saw only yesterday is found dead on the street the next morning.

“We need support and investment and a commitment to building homes that enable people to lead healthy lives instead of a life of destitutio­n.”

The letter is also signed by the Queen’s Nursing Institute, Pathway and the London Network of Nurses and Midwives Homelessne­ss Group.

Samantha Dorney-Smith, of homeless health charity Pathway, said health nurses were fronting “a broken system”. UK homeless figures during a snapshot survey in late 2018 were put at 7,750. London and the North West had the highest numbers of deaths in 2018, with 148 and 103. See the full letter at .

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