In a practice room full of second-hand items in Oss, Sjaak van Dorst receives patients two days a week. After being a general practitioner for 35 years, Sjaak found a new calling after his retirement: he became a street doctor. He provides care to homeless people, most of whom do not have health insurance.
“Many people I see avoid care because they are suspicious,” says Sjaak. “They are often unemployed migrants who have ended up on the street and are not insured. Sometimes they come in with two plastic bags; they contain everything they need. I try to help those people.”
After 35 years as a general practitioner, social workers asked if Sjaak wanted to set up a practice as a street doctor in Oss. The idea immediately appealed to him. “I believe that everyone has the right to good care, regardless of who or what you are. But it is often a challenge to get people in here. They are sometimes literally taken from the street, completely hypothermic after a night in the rain in a sleeping bag .”
Sjaak’s patients often need urgent care, but do not seek it themselves. “I see many people with neglected wounds that become infected. Recently there was even someone with tuberculosis, a disease that you hardly see anymore in the Netherlands. Fortunately, it was not open tuberculosis, because that could have been a major problem.”
Street doctors have existed in many large cities for some time, but Sjaak’s practice is still relatively new in Oss. Since 2022 he has been working from De Pitstop, a day care center for people with social and psychological problems. “I think that every central municipality should have a street doctor. The idea that homeless people are mainly alcohol addicts is no longer correct. It could also be a woman who ends up on the street after a divorce, or a migrant worker without insurance. And you don’t see that for a long time. more only in the big cities.”
“A listening ear in the coldest days.”
“In the winter it is often busier in shelters like this, especially in the night shelter,” Sjaak explains. “The cold makes people look for warmth and sometimes contact. Last week I spoke to a man who misses his family especially in these dark days. These are sad stories and offering a listening ear is perhaps the most important thing you can do.”
According to Sjaak, work as a street doctor is not for everyone. “You really have to have a feeling for these people. And forget the romance: I have never received a bouquet of flowers and that is not necessary. A smile is enough.”
Street doctors also often have to improvise, something that does not always fit within the strict framework of healthcare. “Sometimes you have to be creative, for example when someone is not insured. A colleague of mine was once reprimanded for giving medication to someone who was in complete panic. Officially it was not allowed, but it was necessary. Fortunately, he was later acquitted. “
Sjaak hopes that his work will receive more attention and that other municipalities will follow his example. “Because everyone deserves care, even if you have nowhere to turn.”