Highland project working to improve healthcare for armed forces personnel and veterans
By Kari Magee
The NHS Highland Armed Forces and Veterans Project was a five-year project that ran from early 2020 until early 2025 to develop NHS Highland as a more armed forces and veterans-aware healthcare provider and employer. It was funded by a grant from the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust.
As part of the project, the project team developed and delivered armed forces and veterans training to over 500 staff members from trainee GPs and practice managers to physiotherapists and occupational therapists.
One of the key purposes of the project was to raise awareness of the Armed Forces Covenant. This ensures that those who serve or have served in the armed forces, and their families, are treated fairly. It can help to reduce or remove the disadvantages experienced by the armed forces and veterans community as they access services.
Many of the project team were either veterans or members of service families. As part of the community we had an understanding of the barriers and challenges that we can face when accessing healthcare.
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We have shone a spotlight on the pressures of being a military family: the frequent and sometimes short notice moves across the UK and the wider world; the time-consuming and often draining process of finding new healthcare services and meeting new healthcare professionals; the difficulties with maintaining anything close to continuity of care; and the constant fear that a posting might mean that you could fall to the bottom of the waiting list.
We have raised awareness that members of the community sometimes don’t recognise the early signs and symptoms that would prompt others to reach out for help.
The armed forces and veterans community is extremely broad and can be difficult to find, which is why we are asking veterans, service families, the families of veterans and reservists to reach out to their GP surgery to make sure that they are recorded correctly.
A veteran is anyone who has served one full day in the Royal Navy, Army or Royal Air Force and includes both regular and reserve service. They are also Merchant Naval Seafarers, who have served in support of legally defined UK military operations. If you are a veteran, then you should be recorded as 13Ji.
Family members may typically include spouses, partners, former spouses or partners and children under the age of 18. However, in some cases it may include parents, significant family members or dependent children and young adults over 18. If you are a family member, then you should be recorded as 13WY.
A reservist is anyone who has chosen to commit to balancing part-time military service alongside their day-to-day life and civilian career. When deployed, their healthcare falls under the remit of the Defence Medical Services, but ordinarily they are cared for by the NHS. If you are a reservist, then you should be recorded as 0Z7.
Why is this important?
If your GP or the healthcare professional caring for you knows that you are part of the armed forces and veterans community there can be more that they can do to support you.
They may be able to find or request support from organisations beyond the NHS like the Veterans Welfare Service, the council, Poppyscotland or SSAFA. They may also be able to refer you to armed forces and veteran-specific support like Help for Heroes, Combat Stress, Forces Children Scotland or the Ripple Pond.
They may be able to anticipate and discuss other health issues that are more frequently linked to service life and can occur earlier in veterans than their civilian counterparts such as musculoskeletal damage to joints, bones, muscles or nerves, hearing loss or some mental health issues.
We understand that everyone experiences service life in different ways; for many, it can be positive; for others, it can be extremely challenging.
If you contact your GP and ask to be coded as part of the armed forces and veterans community, it is not seen as an endorsement of the military. It is only used as a tool to ensure that you receive the support that you not only need, but also deserve.
NHS Highland – Proudly supporting those who serve.
Kari Magee is NHS Highland’s armed forces and veterans project manager.
