"Can I have a letter for the housing, doctor?"   Commentary

McKenzie writes about requests for medical support for rehousing children with asthma or other respiratory symptoms. Such requests most often arise in relation to damp and mouldy housing, a problem common throughout the UK. A recent report by Scottish Homes found that 25% of Scottish housing had damp and condensation problems. The situation is compounded because many of these homes are also hard to heat. Poor housing is frequently found in inner city areas and housing schemes where smoking, unemployment, socioeconomic deprivation, and pet ownership all co-exist. This combination of factors often leads to medical symptoms being attributed to the sufferer’s lifestyle — as one Glasgow campaigner put it, “Blame the victim syndrome is the worst disease we know.”