Colonel (Ret’d) Barney Haugh, Director of Grants and Welfare, ABF The Soldiers’ Charity, has been heavily involved in a collaborative project supporting Health Education England in delivering a series of half day and full day training sessions for GPs across England.
The project started following the work of Brigadier Robin Simpson, an Army GP who is not only the Defence Medical Services Dean at the Defence Medical Services College For Health Education and Training in Lichfield, but also a Senior Examiner at the Royal College of General Practitioners. He managed to persuade the Royal College of GPs that, with nearly 2.8 million Veterans in U.K., GPs should learn more about veterans’ health needs and how to address them.
Working in collaboration with NHS medical educators from Health Education England Brigadier Simpson, with Colonel (Ret’d) Jonathan Leach, now a civilian GP in Bromsgrove, and Lieutenant Colonel (Ret’d) Graham Wheatley, now a GP in Lincolnshire, developed an e-learning package for GPs which is widely available for NHS staff to improve their knowledge. Most significantly Brigadier Simpson also managed to get veterans’ healthcare added to the curriculum for GPs in training.
The Soldiers’ Charity is one of about eight charities who have supported the project with a variety of speakers across the country, in 15 sessions run last academic year. The sessions are run by Lieutenant Colonel Julian Woodhouse for Health Education England.