Surrey-based NHS Trust pledges commitment to Armed Forces
The Surrey and Sussex Healthcare Trust signed a covenant, committing to improving and driving forward the care for current and former members of the armed forces.
A healthcare trust in Surrey has pledged its commitment to the Armed Forces Community by signing a covenant.
The Surrey and Sussex Healthcare Trust runs a number of Surrey hospitals, including the East Surrey Hospital in Redhill, the Caterham Dene Hospital and the Oxted Health Centre.
At an event on the 19th of May, Chief Executive of the Trust Angela Stevenson signed the covenant, which is part of a national commitment to help improve and drive forward care, for both current and former members of the Armed Forces.
The Trust also received its Veteran Aware accreditation from the Veterans Covenant Healthcare Alliance (VCHA), in recognition of its commitment to improving NHS care for veterans, reservists, and members of the armed forces and their families.
**"We're also supporting people making that transition when they're leaving the Armed Forces"**
The event hosted by SASH also celebrated the achievements of serving members of the armed forces and veterans, with members of staff sharing their armed forces stories and why the trust’s commitment to support the armed forces community it looks after is so important.
Staff were joined by members of the local armed forces community, including the Lord Lieutenant of Surrey Michael More-Molyneux, Crawley and Horsham Armed Forces Breakfast Club, Surrey Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment army cadet force and representatives of the Royal British Legion. Local councillors James Baker and Samantha Marshall also attended.
Penny Firshman is the patient experience lead and the Armed Forces Manager at the Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust. She explained why supporting the Armed Forces is so important.
"It can be quite a big thing to come into the normal world, particularly the healthcare system because they haven't necessarily had to access it before. So they can find it quite difficult to adjust to these new healthcare systems and working out how everything works."
"We're also supporting people making that transition when they're leaving the Armed Forces, including supporting people to find what jobs might be available within the NHS and how they might apply for those."