Veterans' healthcare

Priority NHS care for veterans

A veteran is someone who has served in the armed forces for at least one day. There are around 4.5m veterans in the UK.

When servicemen and women (pictured) leave the armed forces, their healthcare is the responsibility of the NHS.

All veterans are entitled to priority access to NHS hospital care for any condition as long as it's related to their service, regardless of whether or not they receive a war pension.

All people leaving the armed forces are given a summary of their medical records, which they are advised to give to their new GP when they register.

Veterans are encouraged to tell their GP about their veteran status in order to benefit from priority treatment.

A minority of people leaving the armed forces need access to mental health services, while others might require it later in civilian life.

Mental health

Six community-based mental health pilot schemes have been launched in Stafford, Camden and Islington, Cardiff, Bishop Auckland, Plymouth and Edinburgh. The schemes provide expert NHS treatment.

Veterans can enter the community-based schemes through a number of routes:

ask to be referred by their GP
self-register with the scheme directly
friends and families of veterans can contact the scheme
ask to be referred by the Veterans Welfare Service or by charities who help servicemen and women

For veterans who don't live near one of these places, they can access the Veterans and Reserves Mental Health Programme (formerly Medical Assessment Programme), which is available to veterans deployed on operations since 1982.

The programme offers comprehensive physical and mental health assessments for veterans who feel that their condition may be linked to their military service.

Comments

2 Comments about ‘Priority NHS care for veterans’

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Comments are personal views. Any information they give has not been checked and may not be accurate.

Forgotten Few said on 26 September 2012

I find it unbelievable that all those veterans that served Prior to 1982 are not within MAP. This is deplorable, especially as we believed in our country and fought for and defended it.
Guess as a friend called me the other day = One of the "Forgotten Thousands", I thought it quite funny then, but now after reading these pages, I believe it to be disgusting that our country has forgotten us and what we did in defending our country. It is about time someone remembered those that served back in the 50's onwards, plus included these, of which I myself am one.

DebW said on 09 May 2010

I think it would be beneficial for practices/surgeries to be more aware of the MAP, and to pick up on the fact that an individual is a veteran from their history, as many would not think to state this on registration following departure from the Armed Forces. This would enable the GP to refer the individual to MAP, who would hopefully be more understanding than the 'run of the mill' counsellors that may not be able to support the individual in getting to the root of the problem - military personnel become very adept at 'blocking things out', which has a detrimental affect later on in life, particularly when integrating back into civvy street.