Shelter attacks health care claims

A charity has challenged claims by the Scottish executive that it
is improving health care for homeless people.

It follows conference speeches by health minister Malcolm Chisholm
and social justice minister Margaret Curran claiming that the
health of the homeless in Scotland was being properly looked at for
the first time.

But Shelter Scotland warned that there was still “a long way to go”
before anyone could say the health of the homeless had improved.
“There’s a proportion of street homeless people with long-term drug
problems and little has been done for them,” a spokesman
said.

But Sue Irving, health and homeless co-ordinator for Scotland,
said: “We are not miracle workers. We only started to implement
these action plans in July.”