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FAO Anyone with a war pension

chockhead819

War Hero
This was posted on SAMA82 site & is relevant to anyone with war pension.
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Dont forget that if you require Medical Treatment in the NHS system ( Hospital, Clinic or GP's Surgery) and you have a War Pension for that condition, you are entitled to go to the front of any waiting list (behind emergency cases obviously).

Many GPs and Primary Care Trusts fail to notice this or indeed are aware of it. It is up to the individual who holds the War Pension to let them know in no uncertain Terms that it is your entitlement under the agreement made originally in 1953 between the MOD and the NHS when they closed the War Pension Military Hospitals. The criteria was altered in 1997 when they closed Aldershot Military Hospital as they commenced the closure programme for all the remaining Military Hospitals or brought them under the NHS as in RNH Haslar Hospital in Gosport, which is now threatened with closure alltogether by the NHS.

Some PCTs will try and fob you off as they may interpret it as an injury that had to be recieved in WWII. That is what Portsmouth PCT is trying to imply. I am in the process of trying to get them to agree that this is not so and that it applies (as it does) to anyone who is in receipt of a War Pension and requires treatment for the condition the Pension was awarded for, at any time, for any condition and that it has nothing to do with actual War.

The most important thing is to make your GP aware that you have a War Pension and the conditions that it applies to. Let him have a copy of the Certificate and make sure he annotates your records that you are entitled to priority treatment and that he should pass this information on to anyone he refers you to. However if you are refered to a consultant or Hospital and a letter from that departmnent is received by you about an apointment or waitong list, that does not state that they are aware of the War Pension and priority on Waiting lists, you should write back to them without delay informing them that you have a War Pension for the condition and to confirm that you are placed at the front of any waiting list.

Keep plenty of copies of your War Pension Certificate (the one you show to the Chemist to get Free Prescriptions will do), you never know when you may need them.

The reference for this is a NHS Executive, Health Service Guidline number HSG (97) 31 dated 18 June 1997 and entitled "Priority Treatment for War Pensioners". It is a PDF File on the Department Of Health's website. The crital wording in the third paragraph under the subheading "Background" is - "and service since 1945" Print it off to show your GP or Hospital along with your War Pension.

http://www.dh.gov.uk/assetRoot/04/01/23/91/04012391.pdf
 

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