e-mail Paul Lewis on paul@paullewis.co.uk
A row is brewing between two Government departments over the priority treatment which the National Health Service is supposed to give people who were injured in the armed forces.
Saga Magazine has learned that war pensions minister Hugh Bayley is concerned about the apparent disregard of the rules by the National Health Service. And the Department of Health is itself reviewing the priority. There are now worries that the Government may be considering abandoning this important privilege for people who were injured defending their country.
The Royal British Legion has evidence that the priority treatment is either unknown or ignored by many doctors and hospitals. Its Head of Pensions Tom House has been flooded with letters since he raised the issue in the Legion’s magazine. He thinks thousands of war pensioners are being refused priority treatment for the condition caused by their war injury as National Health Service trusts and hospitals deny that they are entitled to it. And he is calling on the Government to sort out the mess which he says is caused by two separate departments dealing with war pensioners.
"It is up to the two departments to sort it out. Either you have a scheme or you don’t. I want the war pensions Minister Hugh Bayley to address this issue. People are being asked to go the health ombudsman. It’s not up to them, it’s for the government to sort out so it happens without all these appeals."
People with an injury related to their service in the armed forces have had priority for health treatment since 1945. In 1953 the specialized veteran hospitals were absorbed into the NHS and the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, assured war pensioners that the service they received would not decline.
Philip found that the most important document to wave at a hospital is not a letter from the War Pensions Agency but a chequebook.
"The greatest care will be taken to ensure that war pensioners are not in any way adversely affected by the changes…So far as medical treatment is concerned such special facilities as war pensioners at present enjoy will be fully safeguarded and, in addition, the health Ministers will be able to call on the facilities of the whole National Health Service to ensure that the necessary treatment of war pensioners is given by the hospital best able to provide it."
As a result of that clear statement, the National Health Service has given people with service injuries priority if they needed treatment arising from their accepted war injury, as official war pensions leaflets explain.
"If you need treatment for your accepted conditions in a NHS hospital or a NHS trust hospital, you should get priority treatment…Make sure your doctor and hospital know you are a war pensioner. If you have any problems arranging your treatment, please get in touch with us." (WPA2 April 2000)
The Department of Health has told Saga Magazine that the priority has no legal status. A spokeswoman said "it is a commitment…The Government recognises the personal sacrifice that many war pensioners/veterans have made in terms of their health by ensuring that NHS hospitals give them priority for examination and treatment for conditions which have resulted from their service." Three years ago chief executives of health authorities and National Health Service Trusts were reminded of the need to give priority to war pensioners. They were told "National Health Service Hospitals should give priority to war pensioners, both as out-patients and in-patients, for examination or treatment which relates to the condition of conditions for which they receive a pension or received a gratuity (unless there is an emergency case or another case demands clinical priority)." (HSG(97)31) And they were reminded of that circular again in March this year.
However, there is growing evidence that this guidance is being widely ignored.
Donald Cox – now 65 – did his National Service in the early fifties. The hut he lived in at Aldershot was filthy, and shared with dozens of rats. He and several others were infected with rheumatic fever leaving him a damaged heart. Earlier this year his doctor said he needed a full x-ray of his heart – an angiogram. His wife Shirley recounted their experience of trying to get it when they went to hospital earlier this year.
"He was told he would have to wait several months, probably until September or October. So we pointed out that he was a war pensioner. The admissions clerk said ‘I have worked for the NHS for 18 years and have never heard of such a thing. Anyway what sort of a war were you in at your age? You’re not old enough!’ We pointed out there had been many wars since World War II and produced the letter about his war pension. Nothing happened and I should think we spent almost a whole week on the phone getting nowhere so we said we would appeal. Meanwhile we decided to spend our savings on a private angiogram, just over £1000 it was. And of course that’s hard for us to afford being pensioners. Anyway, then they said as a favour, not because of the war pension, they would bring it forward to July and so we took that as it was only a couple of weeks after the private appointment."
And it was a good job they did. As a result of the test Donald was rushed into hospital and two valves were replaced. He is now making a good recovery, but he may not have lived to keep the October appointment. Such ignorance of the rules is common. Philip Congdon is a 55-year-old ex-RAF parachutist. In the 1970s he jumped out a Hercules with other colleagues and was surprised to see
"a pair of boots on top of my canopy. As they slid down that collapsed my parachute and re-inflated his. So we came down together, me underneath. We hit the ground at great speed and I cushioned his blow. I broke my back and severely compressed the discs in my spine."
Fortunately for Philip his spinal cord was not damaged, but he did not realise the extent of his injuries.
"I saw the Medical Officer but just said I had a few aches and pains and went back on duty. As a young man it wasn’t too bad, I got backache but then many people do. Only in later life do I realise the damage it has done. I have found difficulty getting a job, being 55 and now disabled, unable to stand for a long time. I needed a deep ultrasound scan of my legs. I asked for priority treatment as it was related to my service injury. They looked at me as if I was trying to queue-jump. I was told it would be six or seven months, the same referral time as anyone else. The War Pensions Agency wouldn’t help. They said if it’s six months, it’s six months. In the end I went private. I got it in ten days, at the same hospital. It cost around £170."
Like Donald Cox, Philip found that the most important document to wave at a hospital is not a letter from the War Pensions Agency but a chequebook. No priority for those who have been injured in defending the country, but very swift and rapid priority for those willing to pay. But for another old soldier, and this time I mean old, it was a different story.
Reg Curtis was injured at the battle of Arnhem on 18 September 1944. "It was a gunshot wound, lower leg, but gas gangrene set in and they cut it off above the knee on 20 October. Well after all those years, 56 it is now, my good leg, as I call it, got a bit weary and I couldn’t stand or get up by myself. I needed therapy."
Surely if anyone should have had priority it is an 80 year old man who lost his leg in World War II, defending the ideals which led to the NHS? But he still had to wait six months, a long time when you are 80.
"I got the form from Blackpool, saying I was a war pensioner. Maybe it gee’d them up a bit, I don’t know, but I had to wait six months."
When he finally got treatment it did work and Reg is now able to drive and stand by himself.
Another ex-RAF serviceman, Mike Edser is more direct. He wanted priority treatment for a cataract which had been worsened by multiple sclerosis – a disease the War Pensions Agency accepts was caused by the stress as his work as a fireman and later in air traffic control.
"They told us all our lives in the forces – and I was in for 22 years from 1957, Malaysia, Northern Ireland you name it – they told us they would look after us when we came out. At the local hospital I asked for priority treatment and the doctor just looked at me and smirked. ‘No such thing’ he said. Look after you when you come out of uniform? It’s a load of rubbish."
Tom House hopes it will soon be sorted out. "Many of these are not life-threatening problems. But they are important and unless the Government sorts it out they are just raising false expectations. I want them to ensure that any war pensioner who has a medical condition related to that pension gets priority treatment as promised within the scheme – and by Winston Churchill in 1953."
And a simple solution has been proposed by Donald Cox’s wife Shirley.
"Nowadays everyone is dealt with on a computer. They have your National Health Service number. Why can’t they put a code by that so that they know you get a war pension? It is simple enough. Then they could make sure everyone got the treatment they are entitled to. After all, I don’t expect most war pensioners even know they are entitled to priority."
If you get a pension for any injury or disability caused by your service in the armed forces, the National Health Service should give you priority for examination and treatment of any problem relating to that condition. Ask for a form or letter from the War Pensions Agency confirming you get a war pension. And remind the health service of Health Service Guideline HSG(97)31 of 13 June 1997 ‘Priority Treatment for War Pensioners’. See www.doh.gov.uk/cebulletin16march.htm for more information.
October 2000
e-mail Paul Lewis on paul@paullewis.co.uk