References
Setting up a drug treatment service in a COVID-protect hotel in inner London

Abstract
At the start of the UK's COVID-19 lockdown, the government announced an ‘Everyone In’ strategy to get homeless people off the streets and into accommodation. An Inner London borough opened a hotel to house up to 100 homeless people to address their health needs. Local healthcare providers were asked to provide in-reach services. This article describes the setting up and delivery of a drug treatment service to provide substitute opioid therapy. Thirty-five people were taken into drug treatment in the hotel between April and December 2020. During this time various challenges had to be addressed including same-day prescribing, delivering and supervising controlled drugs and responding to drug dealing in the hotel. Partnership work between the different healthcare providers was essential for the success of this project and offers a model that could be used going forward to deliver comprehensive wrap-around services to hard-to-engage individuals with multiple health needs.
On 23 March 2020, prime minister Boris Johnson addressed the nation on COVID-19 and told the population to stay indoors and only leave the house for limited reasons such as shopping, exercise and addressing medical needs. This announcement highlighted the plight of the UK's homeless population for whom staying at home or self-isolating whilst symptomatic, were not options. The government recognised this and had already appointed Dame Louise Casey to head a task force to address the problem. She spearheaded an ‘Everyone In’ emergency accommodation operation and on 26 March 2020, Luke Hall MP (minister for local government and homelessness) wrote to all local council leaders and requested that “these people have access to … facilities that enable them to adhere to public health guidance on hygiene or isolation, ideally single room facilities (Ministry of Housing, 2020a). Extra funding was announced and by 8 April 2020 the housing secretary Robert Jenrick MP estimated that 90% of known rough sleepers at the start of the lockdown had been offered accommodation (Ministry of Housing, 2020b).
Register now to continue reading
Thank you for visiting Journal of Prescribing Practice and reading some of our peer-reviewed resources for prescribing professionals. To read more, please register today. You’ll enjoy the following great benefits:
What's included
-
Limited access to our clinical or professional articles
-
New content and clinical newsletter updates each month