For years, Dr Gary Bloch was troubled by patients whose health problems were due to poverty. But then the Canadian GP had a light-bulb moment. 

Deciding to address the root cause of their ill health, he began writing ‘scripts’ for money — dispensed through government programs rather than the local pharmacy, Dr Bloch told the news site Vox.

He developed a simple, three-step clinical poverty tool: ask every patient about their income, be aware of the evidence linking poverty to worse health outcomes, and then do something about it. 

“I think of a guy who came in a couple years ago. He’d been living [in a tent outdoors] in Toronto for about five years. He hadn’t been in touch with healthcare, he had a history of childhood trauma, and he was progressively separated from society,” said Dr Bloch, from St Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.