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Find out about our hospital team programme

What is a Pathway hospital team?

Headed up by specialists, our hospital team model offers a radical new way of caring for people who are homeless.

Our partnership programme offers a whole new way to help people who are homeless. We train NHS staff to help patients access the accommodation, care and support they need to recover, and get life onto a better pathway after their stay in hospital.

You can read the latest Annual Report of the programme below.

Research, Policy & Practice >

Beacons in the Storm: The Pathway Partnership Programme Annual Report

What do Pathway teams do?

Based in the hospital, Pathway teams: 

  • provide expert advice and clinical advocacy around homeless health issues (such as substance misuse and substitute prescribing) for inpatients, improving care and treatment outcomes 
  • ensure patients with complex needs are able to engage with services through holistic inpatient support and care, reducing rates of early self-discharge 
  • help homeless patients find somewhere safe and appropriate to stay on discharge, taking into account their needs around health, care and general support
  • support patients with financial issues, welfare entitlement and access to specialist legal help where possible 
  • ensure patients are registered with a GP for ongoing care 
  • refer and signpost to specialist community services to help with a variety of social, mental and physical health issues
  • reconnect patients to family and social support networks on discharge 

Our teams do this by coordinating and hosting regular multidisciplinary team meetings, attended by key professionals within the hospital and also external community services. They also carry out ward rounds as a team to review the care of all homeless patients within the hospital. 

What difference does a Pathway team make?

50%

Over 50% reduction in rough sleeping on discharge.

90

Better health 90 days after discharge.

50%

Over 50% reduction in rough sleeping on discharge.

1/2

Over half of patients helped to register with an appropriate GP.

3x

Nearly 3x more patients in temporary accommodation on discharge.

What difference does a Pathway team make?

90

Better health 90 days after discharge

50%

Over 50% reduction in rough sleeping on discharge.

1/2

Over half of patients helped to register with an appropriate GP.

3x

Nearly 3x more patients in temporary accommodation on discharge

The Pathway team support package

Alongside our social partnership online manual, our support package includes direct access to a central Support Team and the benefits of belonging to our network.

We also share best practice, develop resources, arrange peer visits and organise network events. 

All elements of Pathway’s Partnership Programme, from the initial enquiry process to team set-up and development, are covered in the partnership operations manual. This online manual is a central part of the support package that we provide to all teams in our partnership programme. 

Financial information

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Next Steps

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