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Invited review
UK military veteran-friendly GP practices
  1. Robin G Simpson1 and
  2. J Leach2
  1. 1 RCGP Midland Faculty, Royal College of General Practitioners, London, UK
  2. 2 RCGP, Royal College of General Practitioners, London, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Robin G Simpson, RCGP Midland Faculty, Royal College of General Practitioners, London NW1 2FB, UK; simpsonrg1{at}btopenworld.com

Abstract

About 5% of the UK population are military veterans and have specific medical needs sometimes different from the general population. Veterans may be reluctant to seek help or talk about their problems, which means they do not always access care, support and treatments that are available. Others may face difficulty getting the right help. Veterans may think ‘civilians’ do not understand military culture or know about options for help and services that are available. Experience has shown that general practitioners (GPs) would like more help and support when looking after veterans. The Royal College of General Practitioners has developed the ‘Veteran Friendly GP Practice Accreditation Programme’, which involves a simple online process of accreditation where practices are required to meet the specified criteria and provide evidence that they are supportive of veterans’ healthcare. The aim is to improve healthcare provided to veterans and their families by GPs working in primary healthcare.

  • primary care
  • social medicine
  • adult psychiatry
  • public health

Data availability statement

Data are available upon reasonable request. Qualitative data are held by the RCGP veterans’ programme.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmilitary-2020-001734

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    Data availability statement

    Data are available upon reasonable request. Qualitative data are held by the RCGP veterans’ programme.

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors RGS was the main author and did the majority of the work for this article. JL contributed and checked the article.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.