Trust marks Armed Forces Day with successful NHS Veteran Aware reaccreditation
Following Armed Forces Day on 28 June, Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust is pleased to announce that it has been reaccredited as NHS Veteran Aware. The organisation has a strong armed forces network, comprising of reservists, veterans, armed forces family members and advocates.
The Trust has introduced a number of initiatives as part of the accreditation, including staff training and fostering closer links to the local armed forces community, through Armed Forces Drop-In Sessions across the county and job cafes at the local RAF units. The Trust also identifies armed forces patients in its electronic system, generating a live business intelligence (BI) report for both inpatients and outpatient appointments, to help doctors, nurses and other clinical staff recognise and support those patients.
NHS Veteran Aware accreditation aims to ensure that patients from the armed forces community are not disadvantaged when accessing healthcare. Accredited trusts do this by developing, sharing and driving the implementation of best practice, at the same time aiming to raise standards for everyone accessing NHS trusts in England. Accreditation is overseen by the Veterans Covenant Healthcare Alliance (VCHA).
Accreditation supports NHS trusts, and an increasing number of independent healthcare providers and hospices, to pay due regard to the Armed Forces Covenant.
VCHA Chair, Prof Tim Briggs CBE, said: “More and more NHS trusts are seeing the value of Veteran Aware accreditation as seen through the number of trusts that are now accredited. We have only four NHS trusts across England left to accredit, which is a testament both to the dedication of the VCHA team and to the wider NHS family who work tirelessly on behalf of the military community despite the many pressures they will be under. Well done all.”
Trust CEO Neil Macdonald said: “We are so proud to have been reaccredited as NHS Veteran Aware thanks to the hard work of lots of colleagues, led by a passionate and dedicated leadership team. It is important to us that people from the Armed Forces community experience the outstanding care we try to deliver for all our patients.”