The Passage, which runs London’s largest resource centre for people who are vulnerably housed or street homeless, today opened a dedicated vaccination hub which, as a specific one-off day of action, gives them the opportunity to protect themselves from Covid-19.
Working in partnership with the NHS North West London Clinical Commissioning Group, Westminster City Council and charity partners, the facility is staffed by Passage frontline case workers and the NHS Homeless Health Team. It is running as a drop-in centre with no prior appointment necessary, providing easy access for those on the streets as well as people currently in temporary hotel accommodation, hostels and other residential projects. The Passage’s local outreach team will signpost people directly to the centre.
The Passage will assist the NHS to ensure that all those vaccinated on this one day of action will have access to their second vaccination. The plan is to facilitate future vaccinations clinics if there is demand.
Jenny Travassos, Director of Services and New Developments at The Passage said:
“Over the last 12 months, we were proud to be part of the Everyone In initiative, working with local and central government and other partners to protect hundreds of extremely vulnerable people with safe routes off the street. However, this must be viewed as a starting point and if we are to have any hope of ending rough sleeping, we must build on the lessons learnt during the last year. One of the most important things we can do right now is ensure everyone has access to the vaccination programme – people who are street homeless have a significantly lower life-expectancy and are at higher clinical risk of chronic disease, and this one-off day of action will help them to access a potentially lifesaving vaccine. We all have a role to play in ending rough sleeping and The Passage will continue to play our role in both preventing and ending rough sleeping for the thousands of people we work with.”
ENDS
For further information, please call 020 7592 1856 or email [email protected]