Supporting access to services for military veterans

Healthwatch Lancashire and Healthwatch Blackpool completed engagement activities between September and December 2017. Healthwatch endeavoured to engage with military veterans, their families and staff/volunteers who support veterans in a professional capacity.

The summary of findings informed the majority of military veterans told Healthwatch Lancashire and Healthwatch Blackpool that they are not sure whether their GP knows they are a military veteran, or that their GP definitely does not know they are a military veteran (67%). Of the remaining 33% of military veterans who are registered as such, all made the decision to register themselves without prompt from surgery staff. Healthwatch Lancashire and Healthwatch Blackpool also spoke to relatives and family members as well as those who support military veterans in a professional capacity. 86% of those who support military veterans said they felt it is important that military veterans are registered as such with their GP. A small percentage (14%) said they were unsure, however, nobody said they felt it wasn’t important at all. The majority of military veterans told Healthwatch Lancashire and Healthwatch Blackpool that their GP does not or are unsure whether their GP has access to their medical records (60%). A further 15% told us that their GP only has partial access, which means a quarter of the military veterans we spoke to know that their GP has full access to their medical records. Only 6% of the military veterans Healthwatch Lancashire and Healthwatch Blackpool spoke to were confident that their GP is knowledgeable about military veteran specific services in their area. Of the 46% who said they were unsure, many told us this is because they felt they had never had to ask. Nearly half of people who support military veterans said they did not feel that GPs are knowledgeable about military veteran specific services in their area.

The results show that an average of 13% of military veterans we spoke to are accessing military veteran specific services. Most notably, over half (64%) of military veterans had never heard of or accessed the NHS Military Veterans Service. The service that is most accessed by the military veterans we spoke to is the local Veterans Breakfast Clubs (41%). The two most commonly heard of services were SSAFA (82%) and the Royal British Legion (70%). Just over half of the military veterans Healthwatch Lancashire and Healthwatch Blackpool spoke to (51%) told us they felt there are barriers for military veterans accessing health care services. The most commonly mentioned barrier was lack of communication and awareness of military veteran specific issues (33%).