Homeless people in Denmark lack the resources to pay for their own medical care, and after hospitalisation they often end up back on the streets with no support, reports Metroexpress.
According to Michael Freudendal – a healthcare leader at Mændenes Hjem, which provides social and healthcare services to people who are homeless, drug-users or otherwise vulnerable – a situation like this is not uncommon.
Knocking on the wrong door
For Freudendal, it is a regular experience, at least several times a week, that homeless people show up at their door asking for help, but they have to send them away due to a lack of resources.
“These people need to get their own bed and personnel who can assist them. We are not able to quickly establish something. People often disappear or are hospitalised again,” Freudendal explained.
SF wants to correct the situation
Socialistisk Folkeparti wants to allocate 8 million kroner to creating 10 relief centres where an estimated 60 people a year would be able to get the care and support they need after an operation.
Meanwhile, Steen Rosenquist, the chairman of the nationwide homeless organisation SAND, claims some homeless people have been turned down for operations because they did not have a place to go to afterwards.