Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to support access to orthopaedic care for veterans.

Veterans with an orthopaedic condition related to their time in service can ask their general practitioner to refer them to Op RESTORE. Op RESTORE is an integrated physical health and wellbeing service, and works to ensure that veterans are seen in the right clinical pathway by the right clinician. Op RESTORE works in collaboration with many military charities to provide veterans with wellbeing support to ensure they ‘wait well’ for treatment.

The Government recognises that some veterans may not wish to use bespoke services for veterans, and in some cases orthopaedic conditions may occur that are not attributable to their time in service. In these instances, veterans are able to access the full range of mainstream orthopaedic services commissioned by their local National Health Service integrated care board. As well as local NHS hospitals, this includes local arrangements with the independent sector and supporting services, such as diagnostics and physiotherapy provided by musculoskeletal services, to ensure care is provided as close to the veteran’s home as possible.