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Park bench, own postcode, to share. Would suit rough sleeper

This article is more than 23 years old

Light, airy and centrally located, it has the making of a des res. However, the lack of a few essential features in this residence - namely walls and a roof - would present even the most tenacious of estate agents with a challenge.

Welcome to Park Bench, Portland Square, Bristol BS2 8QD - the official address of six rough sleepers.

Since 1990 all NHS patients have needed a postcode to be able to permanently register with a doctor. The bureaucracy has made it difficult for rough sleepers to receive medical treatment.

Montpelier health centre, a practice in inner-city Bristol that has many rough sleepers, came up with the idea of using the bench as a fixed address to allow homeless people to register with a GP.

Tony Palmer, the centre's practice manager, said the idea to give the bench the same postcode as the surrounding houses was a way to dodge red tape.

"Homeless people were never turned away but the dummy address allows us to give rough sleepers better care because it's continuous. The best situation for a patient is to have a permanent registration. We don't want to exclude anyone who needs medical attention within our area."

Mr Palmer said the local health authority worked with the practice to allow the bench to be accepted as an address.

Vicky O'Loughlin of Avon health authority said: "Homeless people have very severe health problems. The average age of death for rough sleepers is something like 40 years old. Where possible, we like to get people permanently registered."

She added that from now on, the health authority will allow rough sleepers to use "no fixed abode" followed by the GP's address to permanently register with a surgery.

However, Louise Casey, the government's homelessness tsar, said she was "outraged" to hear that a park bench was being used to access medical services.

She said: "It's a good thing that the surgery is helping homeless people get treatment but it is every health authority's duty to permanently register rough sleepers with a GP, using 'no fixed abode' as an address," she said.

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