The School Clinic Morley Street Brighton BN2 9DH
In order to provide an effective healthcare service for people facing homelessness, Arch runs a unique GP surgery, Arch Healthcare, which provides a specialist service that acknowledges the whole person and provides care with kindness, respect and humanity.
To register as a patient at Arch Healthcare, people need to be either sleeping on the streets, living in emergency accommodation, living in a hostel, a traveller, living in a van or ‘sofa surfing’ with friends or acquaintances. Many of the patients at Arch Healthcare have multiple and compound needs which require highly specialised care and attention which we endeavour to provide with every interaction.
Much of the care Arch offers is vastly strengthened by partnerships with key organisations in the city. For example Arch commissions health engagement workers from the specialist charity Justlife in order to support patients with complex health challenges to manage their care. This has made a huge difference to patients’ health and wellbeing.
Accessibility: in order to keep improving Arch’s accessibility, an expanded outreach service was established. This was to address the fact that not everyone is able to reach our surgery, and also in response to the fact that Arch is not universally known about, amongst people who could benefit from our service.
Patient voice: Arch is a lead partner in the Common Ambition project, which puts patient voice at the heart of driving improvements to the homeless healthcare system. Having people with lived experience of homelessness is essential to targeting the issues that matter to Arch’s patients, and what works, and what does not, in supporting them to access healthcare and move towards long term wellbeing.
Below are some quotes from our 2022 patient survey, the results of which showed an overwhelmingly positive impact:
“Great listening – felt respected – fit me in for a face to face promptly”
“You’re all amazing and caring. I felt taken seriously for the first time in my life.”
“Perfect code of conduct. All inclusive and equality for all patients”
“Very friendly”
“Empathetic – Patient led care – Respectful of Trans identity”
“Keep being awesome”
“I think I’m very lucky to have Doctors and Nurses that really care about my wellbeing with a drop in surgery on call twice a day/five days a week”