Veteran Friendly Practice

What does it mean to be 'Veteran Friendly'?

The Veteran Friendly Practices accreditation scheme is run by the Royal College of General Practitioners in partnership with NHS England and NHS Improvement.

Veteran friendly GP surgeries have different ways they can help you with your healthcare.

This means we:

Have a clinical lead in veteran health. (Dr Chithiramohan GPST3).
Ask patients ‘Have you served?’ as part of our routine practice registration, to identify veteran patients.
Support veteran patients to access dedicated health services.
Undertake specialist training to meet the health commitments of the Armed Forces Covenant (hyperlink: https://www.armedforcescovenant.gov.uk)
Having staff trained to treat health problems that commonly affect veterans annually.
Receive information, training and support to help increase understanding of the health needs of veterans– 99% of accredited practices say they would recommend the scheme to others.

Priority treatment for Veterans

If you have a health problem caused by your time in the armed forces, you will usually go on a waiting list before you receive care. However, you may be able to receive NHS care quicker than normal through priority treatment for veterans.

Priority treatment is not guaranteed. Receiving priority treatment depends on your situation and the nature of the treatment required. This includes:

if other people have a higher clinical need than you
the urgency of your treatment
the type of treatment you need

Please check with us, your GP, if you can get priority treatment for the NHS service care you need.

Mental health support for Veterans

Op COURAGE: the Veterans Mental Health and Wellbeing Service

Op COURAGE is an NHS mental health specialist service designed to help serving personnel due to leave the military, reservists, armed forces veterans and their families.
Call 0300 323 0137 or email mevs.mhm@nhs.net (includes the Op COURAGE urgent care and support service for the Midlands).

Veterans and Reserves Mental Health Programme

The Veterans and Reserves Mental Health Programme is a Ministry of Defence (MoD) specialist service that provides mental health assessments and treatment advice for veterans and reservists. You can usually only access this service if we as a GP refers you. Please do ask us about a referral if you feel your time serving in the armed forces has affected your mental health.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/support-for-war-veterans#the-veterans-and-reserves-mental-health-programme

Combat Stress

If you need to talk to somebody, Combat Stress (Mental health services for veterans | Combat Stress) have a dedicated mental health support helpline for veterans and their families. It provides confidential advice and support and is free to call for veterans, family members and carers. This helpline is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year on 0800 138 1619.

Togetherall

Togetherall is a mental health support service that provides:

anonymous, round-the-clock online support with trained counsellors
a supportive community, including forums for safe conversation
free resources to help you improve your mental health

All armed forces serving personnel, reservists, veterans AND THEIR FAMILIES can access these services at any time.

The Veterans' Gateway

Veterans’ Gateway (https://www.veteransgateway.org.uk/) is made up of a range of organisations and Armed Forces charities, including The Royal British Legion, SSAFA – the Armed Forces charity, Poppyscotland, Combat Stress and Connect Assist.

They describe themselves as the “ first point of contact for you and your loved ones”

They welcome a 24/7 contact for help across housing, mental wellbeing, finances and more.

Call the Veterans Gateway team on Freephone 0808 802 1212 or by email (https://support.veteransgateway.org.uk/app/ask). From overseas, you can select the Live Chat (https://support.veteransgateway.org.uk/app/chat/chat_launch) option to avoid any costs.

Veterans Hearing Fund

The Royal British Legion administered the Veterans Hearing Fund on behalf of Her Majesty Treasury since 2015. The Veterans Hearing Fund (VHF) provides support to veterans who acquired hearing loss during service where there is a wellbeing need that cannot be met through statutory services (such as via the NHS).

The funds provided to these programmes are fully assigned - please Contact medicalfunds@britishlegion.org.uk or call the contact centre on 0808 802 8080 if you are a past applicant with a query.

If you are a Veteran who has suffered from hearing loss or are suffering from a serious physical injury due to Service in the Armed Forces, you may be entitled to a War Pension or Armed Forces Compensation through Veterans UK.