Norfolk Veterans Healthcare Conferences evaluation, Norfolk

The 2015-16 Government mandate to Health Education England included the requirement to provide veteran specific training to primary care professionals (amongst others).

Four Healthcare Conferences were arranged by Health Education England in the East of England, in collaboration with Healthwatch Norfolk and Lt. Col. Julian Woodhouse (Royal Army Medical Corps), to provide this training to GP trainees across the region. Healthwatch Norfolk carried out the evaluation on the events.

The events were attended by 272 trainees, which is one in four of all trainees in the East of England. Sixty-four (64) trainees gave feedback about the events.

All but one of the trainees (98%) felt that the event had met or exceeded their expectations and every student said that they intended to change their practice based on learning from the day.

The events had four learning outcomes to make GPs more aware of;

1. Veterans’ health needs

2. Veterans’ entitlements on the NHS

3. The importance of identifying and coding veterans on practice lists

4. Support for veterans in the Third Sector

Data were captured by Healthwatch Norfolk through an online survey. The survey was entirely optional and anonymous.

Recommendations were; there was too much repetition, further practical information and advice about what GPs can do to help veterans would have been useful, it would be good to hear from a wider range of speakers, the organisation and administration can make a big difference

This evaluation has established that the Veterans’ Healthcare Conferences were a huge success, as judged by feedback from 64 of the 272 GP trainees (24%) who attended the events however, the trainees did identify some areas for future improvement.