Left out in the cold
Published 15th July 2021
Doctors of the World (DOTW) has released a recording of the webinar Left out in the cold: The extreme unmet health and service needs of street sex workers in East London before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This webinar follows the publication of a report of the same name, written by Rachel Stuart from the University of Kent, and Pippa Grenfell, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).
Hosted by Amardeep Kamboz, Head of Services at DOTW, and the webinar features an expert panel consisting of report authors Rachel Stuart and Pippa Grenfell, as well as Melanie Rosario, a former homeless street worker with experience of having worked as a sex worker in Newham, and Lucy Platt, who is a researcher from LSHTM.
This report was prompted by our awareness of the cuts over the last few years which are affecting a broad range of healthcare services, specifically specialist sex worker services throughout London.
As an organisation, DOTW is interested in identifying gaps in support for people excluded from healthcare and other services, and so began conversations with partners, including colleagues at LSHTM, to see how we could broaden our understanding of this issue, and to understand better what sex workers were asking for in terms of support.
The relocation of the DOTW clinic to Newham two year ago was one of the reasons we chose to look at this borough, but we’re aware that cuts to services have had an impact in many other places across London, and throughout the country.
The webinar presents the key findings and recommendations from the report, as well as a question-and-answer session with the panel of experts.
Beyond the production of the report, Left out in the cold: The extreme unmet health and service needs of street sex workers in East London before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, DOTW supports sex workers through our drop in clinic in Stratford.
DOTW has also supported other sex worker support services such as Open Doors and CLASH over the years by joining them on outreach, or running outreach sessions at their clinics.