Volunteering with Street Side Medics.
Volunteering with Street Side Medics. How can you practise medicine, watch the sun set over St Kilda 🌴, and work alongside some of the kindest people you’ll ever meet?
Over the past few months, I’ve had the privilege of volunteering with this remarkable organisation, bringing primary healthcare directly to people experiencing homelessness and others facing significant barriers to accessing care.
My wonderful colleague, Dr Aidan Allen-Hall, has been volunteering there for much longer and was the one who encouraged me to join. He’s one of those people who quietly gets on with doing good in the world without ever talking about it.
Street Side Medics transforms vans into fully functioning GP clinics. Volunteer doctors, nurses and support teams work alongside mobile shower and laundry services, food providers and community organisations, meeting people where they  are instead of expecting them to navigate a healthcare system that can feel impossible to access.
One of the reasons I wanted to volunteer was because I’d love to see a service like this one day in Melbourne’s west, particularly around Footscray. It doesn’t exist here yet, so I thought the best place to start was by learning from people who have already built something extraordinary.
What has surprised me most is the volunteers. Every shift I work alongside inspiring people—from junior doctors wanting to give back, to experienced professors who simply tell me they wanted to do some “real medicine” again.
People often talk about volunteering as giving back. What I’ve discovered is that I receive just as much as I give.
Every shift brings special moments —a patient proudly sharing photos of their children, a conversation that starts with healthcare and ends with a little smile , or getting to pat the incredibly loyal dogs who never  leave their owner’s side. These moments remind me that good healthcare is built on trust, dignity and human connection.
It also makes me wonder: why don’t we have more services like this as part of our public health system, reaching out to people who need healthcare the most?
Perhaps change begins when people simply decide to start.
If you’re a doctor, nurse, driver or administrator looking to make a difference, I couldn’t recommend Street Side Medics more highly.
Dr Antje Theilhaber
Founder, Eleanor Clinic
