Straatzorg Rotterdam: a site that says where the street doctor is today

Straatzorg Rotterdam provides general practitioner care for homeless people in Rotterdam. Multidisciplinary teams of doctors, nurses, social workers and volunteers hold walk-in surgeries at shelters, church locations and care centers across the city, and work alongside hospitals, local GPs and the municipality.

Their patients do not book weeks ahead. They need to know where a doctor is today, and whether they will be turned away when they get there. Those are the two questions a website has to answer first.

We built the site around the locations instead of around the organization. Every walk-in surgery has its own entry with the address, the phone number, the doctors and nurses who hold it, and the time of the next surgery. A radius search narrows the list down to what is within walking distance.

The rest of the site answers the questions that decide whether someone comes in at all: who is welcome, what it costs, and what happens if you are uninsured or have no papers.

The next surgery time on each location is the detail that makes the site usable on the street.

The site is live on WordPress. A visitor sees eight locations, the hours of the next surgery at each one, and whether an appointment is needed or the door is simply open. The FAQ handles the eligibility questions that used to need a phone call.

Donations are made and paid on the site itself, with a set amount or an amount of the donor’s own. The team keeps its own news and vacancies up to date, including the current opening for a doctor’s assistant.