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The importance of military families being able to access health and care services easily

I am a proud veteran of the Royal Navy and so last week, on Trafalgar Day, I was glad to receive information about a new NHS initiative that supports armed forces families.

This new NHS England and NHS Improvements initiative is to look at how families of serving personnel, reservists and veterans access NHS services in England, so that in future it’s easier for these groups to access NHS services.

Due to the nature of armed forces life, there’s an enormous amount of mobility and normally the service person needs to move to a new posting, draft or appointment every couple of years.

Now, should the service person have a family, there are two options: Firstly, you can ‘weekend’ (that is, work away from the family home and come home at weekends), and secondly, you can live together as a family. However, with the latter option, the family also needs to uproot with the service person upon their moving job, and often this is to a completely new area.

My personal story

My wife Annie and I chose the latter option, so we moved as a family on average every two years. In addition to finding a new house to live in, a school for the kids and a GP for the family, Annie needed to start a new life and find the other essentials, such as, where is the supermarket, or any idea where I can find a dentist or a decent hairdresser? Whilst I have absolutely no need of the latter, I’m under the impression that for some people this is quite important, as is finding your way around a strange town – especially as very often she’d be on her own due to my frequent and often lengthy times away.

On top of this, we have a child who at the time needed lots of medical and educational support, so numerous clinical reports from different specialties were required to be included in his educational statement of needs. Frustratingly, the requirement seemed to change each time we moved and each area had a different slant on what was needed. We soon appreciated that not much is joined-up when it comes to health, care or education. So, whilst living in 11 houses in several different areas during my naval career was a great adventure, it came with challenges for my family, none more so than attempting to access the myriad of support services across many different local authorities.

NHS England and NHS Improvements initiative

By telling my tales of woe, it is hoped that my PM colleagues will have an insight into the unique circumstances that many of my serving and ex-military colleagues, plus their families, have had and how this often-nomadic lifestyle can cause difficulties when accessing health, care or education.

Many of you will be aware of the Armed Forces Covenant which, amongst many considerations, supports access to NHS waiting lists, as detailed within the Priority treatment for veterans on PLUS. But to further support this covenant, a new initiative has been released titled “Improving health and wellbeing support for armed forces families in England”, and NHS E and NHS I have raised a questionnaire and compiled a series of online events to seek views on how the NHS can improve care and support for this group across England.

This questionnaire is now open and hopes to:

  • Ensure that those families caring for individuals injured in service get the care and support they need from clinicians and people who understand the armed forces
  • Use this engagement as an opportunity for people and organisations to share their views on how the NHS can do this
  • Explore whether setting up armed forces families support networks would help

The engagement is running from 30th September 2020 to 30th November 2020, during which time NHS E and NHS I will also be hosting a series of online meetings and events. For information on the engagement and associated events, visit here.

The request

Both NHS E and NHS I have requested that our fantastic community, Team PI, should help to promote this new initiative – i.e. both the questionnaire and virtual events. They advise that whilst anyone can get involved, they’re particularly keen to hear from armed forces families, that is, Regular, Reserve and Veteran families.

To further support this, a supporting brief and engagement toolkit, which includes a range of assets, such as newsletter, web and social-media copy, materials to support virtual engagement events and a suite of digital graphics, is available in the following embedded documents:

Armed forces families support_engagement toolkit FINAL

AF families engagement brief Sep 2020 launch

It is advised that all responses will be treated in confidence and will help NHS E and NHS I improve the care and support that’s offered to armed forces families across England.

Many thanks for any support that you can give.

Mat

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Mat Phillips

Mat Phillips is the Policies and Compliance Manager for Practice Index. He is a clinical governance specialist, facilitator and trainer. Mat has enjoyed a primary care career spanning 30+ years within the NHS, in the UK Oil and Gas Industry and Royal Navy.

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3 Responses to “The importance of military families being able to access health and care services easily”
  1. Lisa Says:

    Don’t get me wrong, I take my hat off to all those who serve. I was a military child who moved every few years with each posting my Dad had.
    I don’t understand why a military family should have priority. Surely the clinical necessity should be the overriding factor. I have had several ex military patients wanting priority as they are aware of this initiative, but my Partners are not prepared to prioritise them just because they are ex military. For them it is about the clinical need that should determine who gets seen first.

    Reply

    • Mat Phillips Says:

      Thanks for your response Lisa,

      Please can I advise that the Veterans: Priority NHS Treatment is only for injuries sustained whilst in service, please see the extract from the policy:

      All veterans are entitled to priority access to NHS care (including hospital, primary or community care) for conditions associated with their time within the armed forces (service-related).

      The reasons for this improved access is due to Service personnel could be disadvantaged due to them often moving and thus finding themselves at the bottom of a different NHS Trust waiting list following any referral. The policy also states that:

      “This is always subject to clinical need and doesn’t entitle you to jump the queue ahead of someone with a higher clinical need”.

      To read the policy in full, please see:

      https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/military-healthcare/priority-nhs-treatment-for-veterans/

      Reply

  2. martin Says:

    Hi Lisa, as Mat says, clinical priority takes precedence, however under the Armed Forces covenant and supporting NHS regulations, a serviceman/ woman or dependent is not to be disadvantaged because of their service.
    In practice this means ‘no-worse-service’ than a civilian with the same clinical need, and the thing this is really trying to stop is re-starting on the wait list when posted (which affects families as much as those serving). Priority for service-related injuries should go without saying!

    I don’t see the Veterans policies affecting general practice much – we see everyone anyway – but it’s helpful if your GPs know to mention service/ veteran status when referring.

    Martin

    Reply

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