When people become homeless their health deteriorates rapidly and if left unchecked condemns them to a short life.  When homeless people come out of hospital after a procedure, they go back on the streets and rarely recover properly.  As a consequence they are back in hospital in a matter of weeks - homeless people are the “frequent flyers” at emergency departments.

Rotary has worked with Homeless Healthcare to develop a Medical Respite Centre (homelesshealthcare.org.au/medical-respite-centre) to provide pre and post hospital care for homeless people. It is the first of its kind in Australia. The benefits are to enable a homeless person to fully recover from a procedure before going back on the streets, address their chronic health conditions, provide pathways out of homelessness, reduce repeat visits to emergency departments and re-admittance to hospital,  and deliver significant savings to WA’s health budget.

The MRC was opened by WA’s Community Services Minister Simone McGurk and Health Minister Roger Cook at the building known as the Witch’s Hat in Northbridge in August 2021.  It is now up and running with 20 medical beds and 10 non-medical beds, and residents can stay for a period of up to 14 days in either.