The Armed Forces Act 2021 names GP Practices as one of the relevant bodies that must show ‘Due Regard’ in line with the Covenant to the Armed Forces community. This can be achieved in part by being a ‘Veteran Friendly’ GP Practice; this is supported by the evidence of ensuring understanding and access to the right services.

GP Practices provide health services for the Veterans, Reservists and Service families who are registered with them. The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) is working with NHS England and NHS Improvement to accredit GP practices as ‘Veteran Friendly’. 

A Veteran Friendly accredited GP practice will: 

1. Ask patients registering with a surgery if they or anyone in their immediate family has ever served in His Majesty’s Armed Forces.
2. Code it on the GP computer system. The RCGP recommends using ‘English’ rather than Read codes as these vary according to which computer system is used.
3. Have a clinical lead on veterans in the surgery. This should be a registered health care professional, but could be a nurse or paramedic, not just a GP.
4. Have the clinical lead undertake dedicated training, attend NHS Armed Forces network meetings, stay up to date with the latest research and innovations and ensure that the practice is meeting the health commitments of the Armed Forces Act. They should also be available to provide advice to colleagues, as well as possibly seeing veterans themselves.
5. Eligible practices should have a CQC ‘good’ rating or higher.

Accreditation is valid for 3 years and once achieved, this will mean that GP practices will be able to improve the identification and coding of these individuals, with a linked aim of further increasing the understanding of their health requirements and improving their care and treatment.

Whilst this is a voluntary initiative, this is set out as a key commitment in the NHS Long Term Plan, which states: ‘to ensure all GPs in England are equipped to best serve our Veterans and their families, over the next five years we will roll out a Veterans accreditation scheme in conjunction with the Royal College of GPs.’

Being accredited means that a practice can better identify and treat Veterans, refer them, where appropriate, to dedicated NHS services (such as OpCOURAGE: the Veterans Mental Health and Wellbeing Service and OpRESTORE: the Veterans Physical Health and Wellbeing Service). Ensuring that Due Regard is applied under the Armed Forces Act 2021 to make sure that 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.

For more information on NHS services for veterans see the NHS website by following the link below.

NHS UK Armed Forces Community