Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what proportion of veteran’s medical records have been digitised.
With the introduction of the Defence Medical Information Capability Programme (DMICP), the electronic patient record system for the Armed Forces, the vast majority of personnel who have left service since 2010 will have had a Ministry of Defence (MOD) digital primary healthcare record. Conversely, those who left the Armed Forces prior to the introduction of DMICP are likely to have a paper, rather than digital, record.
When personnel leave the Armed Forces, their healthcare becomes the responsibility of the NHS in the majority of cases. One to three months before discharge, Service personnel are required to register with an NHS GP. The GP then requests the individual's service medical records from the MOD. After the records are received, how they are held is the responsibility of the NHS.