Being accredited by the Royal College of General Practitioners means that as a practice we can better identify and treat veterans, refer them, where appropriate, to dedicated NHS services and capture better data to improve future health provision.
It also means that the NHS is better able to meet the health commitments of the Armed Forces Covenant, which says the Armed Forces community, including veterans, should face no disadvantage in accessing health services and should receive priority care for military attributable conditions, subject to clinical need.
A veteran is someone who has served in the British Armed Forces (Regular or Reserve) for at least one day. Veterans also include any member of the Merchant Marine who has served in a war zone. This includes crew from convoys in World War 2 and more recently in the Falklands conflict and Gulf Wars.
About 18,000 service people move back into civilian life every year and whilst most of these individuals have similar levels of health to the general population, around 2,000 leave on medical grounds. The top reasons for medical discharge are for issues relating to back, knees, mental health and hearing.
If you are a veteran please let us know!
For more information on how the NHS can help veterans and ex-forces personnel please visit the link below.
https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/armed-forces-community/veterans-service-leavers-non-mobilised-reservists/
We also recommend listening to DECLASSIFIED, a series of podcasts documenting stories from the military community to help, support and guide those suffering from mental and physical illness and injury.
https://declassifiedpodcast.com/
