A woman who recently had a baby was sent by social services away from local support. She has a b n b: a place to live and food to eat, but she’s isolated.
Yesterday she needed medical help, calling us at 12 midnight- asking us to take her to hospital. The 111 number is the one to call when worried about medical issues, they are ‘The service is available 24 hours a day, every day of the year and is intended for 'urgent but not life-threatening' health issues’. Find out more on their website here.
Talking to a medical professional in this number, they can find out what’s wrong, and send an ambulance if needed or find a local service to help.
But the main problem for this woman was being made homeless 5 days before her due date, left street homeless , picked up by a charity and after birth packed off in a taxi to another town, needs looking at as a norm for treatment of destitute women so it doesn’t occour over and over.
We are lucky to work with Meena Centre, Hope Projects, Midwives and the Hospital, the Nrpf adult and children’s teams (who only acted once the baby was born, as it is ok for pregnant undocumented women to be homeless), the Doula Project and community members. Everyone did something and working together got what was possible, but it’s not good enough.