A veteran is someone who has served in the armed forces for at least one day. There are around 2.8 million veterans in the UK.
When servicemen and women leave the armed forces, their healthcare is the responsibility of the NHS.
It is highly important for continuing healthcare that you register with an NHS GP and remember to tell them you’ve served. Telling the GP practice about your veteran status will trigger the transfer of your full medical documentation from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to your GP and enable you to benefit from
veteran-specific services, like prosthetics and mental health.
You shouldn’t be disadvantaged from accessing appropriate health services, so it’s important that you notify your current GP that you are moving, particularly if
you’re on a waiting list for medical treatment, so that this information can be transferred across.
All veterans are entitled to priority access to NHS hospital care for any condition, as long as it’s related to their service and subject to the clinical
need of others.
Please remember that priority treatment does not entitle you to jump the queue ahead of someone with a higher clinical need and only relates to a condition
associated to your time within the armed forces.
For more information on the duty of care owed to service personnel, read the Armed Forces Covenant (PDF).
To enable the practice to comply with the requirements of the Armed Forces Covenant and ensure high quality responsive services for currently serving
members of the armed forces, veterans, reservists and their families we are trying to identify all our patients who are part of the Armed Forces Community.
The Armed Forces Community includes:
- Regular personnel currently serving as members of the Naval service (including the Royal Navy and Royal Marines), Army or Royal Air Force.
- Reservists Volunteer Reservists, who form the Royal Naval Reserve, Royal Marine Reserve, Territorial Army and the Royal Auxiliary Air Force, and Regular Reservists, who comprise the Royal Fleet Reserve, Army Reserve and Royal Air Force Reserve.
- Veterans those who have served for at least a day in HM Armed Forces, whether as a Regular or Reservist.
- Families of Regular Personnel, Reservists and Veterans the immediate family of those in the categories listed above. This is defined as spouses, civil partners, and children for whom they are responsible, but can where appropriate extend to parents, unmarried partners and other family members.
- Bereaved the immediate family of Service Personnel and veterans who have died, whether or not that death has any connection with Service.
Please let your nurse, GP or the reception team know if you belong to the Armed Forces Community (and under which category), and would like this information adding to your medical record.