Hospital appoints nurse for armed forces patients

A hospital has created a new nursing role in a bid to improve services for veterans and serving armed forces personnel who are seeking medical care.

Salisbury District Hospital has appointed Julie Wadham, from Shipton Bellinger, into the role to provide specialist physical and clinical support and to signpost patients to the right care. Her role is funded by Help for Heroes.

The 48-year-old is a former army nurse who later went on to work as a veterans' clinical advisor at the charity.

"It just felt like a natural progression for me and a chance to do some good, knowing that I have the understanding and knowledge from my service, deployments and different postings," she said.

The role was created after Help for Heroes identified a gap in support for the armed forces community who can often find it difficult to engage with hospital services and treatment.

Some patients may required additional support because of the nature of their injuries and other conditions.

Ms Wadham said: "This isn't about treating the armed forces community differently; it's recognising they may have additional needs.

"Their experiences during military service can affect how they engage with treatment, which can lead to delays."

The team at Help for Heroes hopes to introduce the nursing role at other hospitals around the UK.

Carol Betteridge, the charity's deputy services director, said: "The evidence is clear that having dedicated, specialist nurses in other areas of care, such as diabetes specialist nurses, or Macmillan nurses, improves clinical outcomes, reduces length of stay in hospital and is cost-effective.

"As a charity, we're changing how we provide our services, and this is one example of where we are actively taking our services directly to the armed forces community at what can be their time of greatest need."

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