Little is known about the social and medical characteristics of people who regularly sleep rough, or whether medical care can be targeted to these people. In 1987, a mobile medical unit was used to provide primary health care at two sites in central London where many single homeless people sleep outdoors. One hundred forty-six patients were seen with illnesses ranging from scabies to osteomyelitis and tuberculosis. Sociodemographic data showed the patients to be generally an isolated group with deprived and unstable backgrounds. This was often compounded by alcohol abuse. Over a third of the patients from one site attended a drop-in center for homeless people in Soho within a month after seeing a doctor in the mobile medical unit. This suggests that the project can be a first stop in integrating this isolated group with health care facilities.
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