Dr Keen is the principal of a company called NowMedical which is well-known to people working in the field of law relating to homeless people. He and his company provide reports to local authorities on medical matters relating to the provision of housing to homeless applicants and others seeking housing assistance. In particular, those reports are frequently relied on by local authorities in decisions refusing assistance. This page aims to be a resource to disseminate information about Dr Keen and NowMedical so that those representing the homeless and housing applicants have a better understanding of their role and input.

Please e-mail me if you have any information to add to this page.

The courts have laid down a test as to whether a homeless applicant should be regarded as vulnerable, known as the Pereira test. Dr Keen and NowMedical apply a different test known as the “reasonable function” test. Its source is unknown. You can download an article I wrote for the Journal of Housing Law on this.

There was an excellent article in the Guardian on Dr Keen and NowMedical on 29th August 2007. The Guardian also received some letters responding to the article.

Also see the Nov/Dec 2007 issue of Roof at pp35-37. (The author has refused me permission to link to the article due to Dr Keen’s threats of libel action.)

When he was an MP, Dr Ian Gibson asked questions in Parliament about the use of NowMedical, as reported in Hansard.

NowMedical got a mention in Andrew’s Story, a book by Brenda Prentice about her adopted son’s 20-year fight with pancreatitis.