AQW 9069/22-27

Ms Kellie Armstrong
Alliance Party
Strangford

Tabled Date: 15/03/2024
Answered On Date: 03/04/2024
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Health for his assessment of the impact the work of the five regional homeless nurses has had on (i) the number of Emergency Department visits; (ii) the number of ambulance call-outs; and (iii) the number of patients leaving hospital before they could be treated, in each of the last three financial years.

Answer:

The Health and Social Care Trusts (HSCTs) do not hold service user data at the granular level required to enable such an analysis and it is therefore not possible to quantify the impact of the regional homeless nurses’ work in terms of the numbers of attendances to Accident & Emergency Departments, the number of ambulance call-outs; or the number of patients leaving hospital before they could be treated, in the last three financial years.

The impact of the regional homeless nurses stretches beyond unscheduled care attendances in supporting the complex needs of the homeless population. They play an important role in bridging the gap between community and hospital care to the street homeless and those who are in adult homeless hostels by supporting, advocating, educating, empowering, and caring for those within the homeless population.