If it wasn’t for a chance encounter with a homeless healthcare service, Ian Bailey might be dead.

The Hobart man was living in men’s homeless shelter Bethlehem House when he discovered the pop-up medical service two years ago.

“I had been ill for a couple of years and hadn’t been able to work, and had run out of money,” he said.

“So I had nowhere to live. I had been to many doctors and they all said nothing was wrong with me.”

While Mr Bailey was living at Bethlehem House, he attended one of nurse practitioner Angela Patras’ pop-up Homeless Healthcare clinics.

“I said to Angela ‘everyone says I’m not sick, can you please do some tests?’,” he recalled.

“We did some tests, and I found out that I had renal cancer and heart disease.

“Over the last 12 months I have had several operations. The chance meeting with Angela saved my life.

“I’m a very lucky man.”

Angela Patras says more money is needed to improve the service. Photo: ABC

Mr Bailey has since found housing and returned to work, but continues to see Ms Patras’ bulk-billing practice, All Round Health and Community Care, for treatment.

He is one of thousands of homeless and disadvantaged patients Ms Patras has treated since starting the practice, and a Homeless Healthcare program in 2015.

Homeless Healthcare includes a street clinic program run out of a van stocked with medical supplies, which helps people sleeping rough on the streets of Hobart.

The program receives no funding and relies on clinical staff volunteering their time.

The service also visits homeless shelters like Bethlehem House, where residents can walk in without an appointment for a health check and consultation.

Ms Patras said the number of patients to her practice and the Homeless Healthcare service had increased threefold to about 2500 patients since it started.

“There is definitely more of an issue [with homelessness] than there was two years ago,” she said.

“The numbers have tripled.

“I have a huge amount of adolescents, about 30 per cent of our patient group is between the ages of 14 and 20,” she said.

“About 60 per cent are women who have come from domestic violence backgrounds or have mental health difficulties. The rest of the population are men.

“What we try to do is provide a safety net to pick people up that might fall through the cracks before they get there.”

The homeless healthcare street clinic van is stocked with medical supplies. Photo: ABC

General manager David Patras said despite the need for Homeless Healthcare growing in Hobart, the program had struggled to attract funding.

“More and more people are finding themselves in situations that they might have thought they would be in,” he said.

“For our Homeless Healthcare program we are not funded at all, it is run by staff volunteering their time.

“The clinic generates revenue through Medicare billings, but apart from that there is no government funding for our Homeless Healthcare program whatsoever.

“We put in a large proposal back in 2016 for an after-hours model where our street clinic would run around of an evening talking to those sleeping rough, but that was knocked back.”

Mr Patras said it was impossible for the service to continue growing to meet the needs of Hobart’s homeless.

“We are at the point now where we can’t [grow], this is our ceiling height,” he said.

“We need funding to be able to be able to provide a better service for our patients out in the streets and in crisis accommodation facilities.

“Statistics are growing every year with homelessness. The crisis accommodation is full. There is a need for it.

“These clinics are also preventative, which takes away the burden on the public system.”

The Homeless Health care service has secured funding for a statewide flu immunisation program, which will soon be rolled out.

Ms Patras said the clinic’s services were helping to ease pressure on Hobart’s health system, particularly by keeping people out of the Royal Hobart Hospital.

“We are trying stop the hospital blockages,” she said.

“In the winter months, there is an even higher risk that people are going to end up in hospital if they don’t access healthcare.”

-ABC