A veteran is someone who has served in the armed forces for at least 1 day. There are around 2.4 million veterans in Great Britain.
When servicemen and women leave the armed forces, their healthcare is the responsibility of the NHS.
It’s very important for continuing healthcare that you register with an NHS GP and remember to tell them that you have served. This will help your GP to better understand any service-related health conditions that you may have and ensure that you are referred, where appropriate, to dedicated services for ex-forces.
Being flagged as a veteran in your NHS medical notes will help to ensure that you are able to access dedicated services for those who have served in the UK armed forces. These include services for mental health and physical health conditions.
Find out more about the range of dedicated health services for ex-forces with this leaflet.
Or see the Veterans: priority NHS treatment website
Making Sure your medical Records are tagged correctly
To ensure your medical records are up to date we will be texting patients over the next few weeks to ask them whether they are a UK Armed Services Veteran – Simply respond to the text and this will tag your medical record appropriately.
(Please note that you may be asked for proof such as your military service number)
