Sherwood Forest Hospitals strengthens commitment to local armed forces

Sherwood Forest Hospitals has announced it is working towards achieving a more comprehensive, independently-assessed Veterans Covenant Healthcare Alliance (VCHA) accreditation.

The Trust’s work towards achieving the VCHA accreditation will commit the Trust to building upon that original commitment within the Armed Forces Covenant, including training staff to effectively identify serving and former members of our armed forces and their families when they become patients at the Trust’s hospitals, as well as better understanding and serving those individuals’ needs, establishing links with and actively referring veterans to local services for additional and more specialist support and committing to formally support the UK armed forces as an employer.

David Selwyn, the medical director for Sherwood Forest Hospitals who will oversee the Trust’s work towards achieving the accreditation, said: “Sherwood Forest Hospitals has a proud history of working with and supporting our armed forces and I would like to thank all those connected to our armed forces for all that they have done and continue to do for our country.

“Our work towards achieving this higher level of accreditation strengthens our commitment to better understanding the needs of our forces and all those connected to them here in Nottinghamshire.”

Among the members of the armed forces employed by the Trust is Colonel Kelvin Wright, the commanding officer in the 306 Hospital Support Regiment who is an Intensive Care Consultant at King’s Mill Hospital and has served as an army reservist for 13 years.

He said: “I’ve always been driven to help people and support my country and my roles both here at Sherwood Forest Hospitals and with the army really do tick both of those boxes and more.

“It is so important that employers commit to provide additional support to those who are part of the armed forces family in any way to help create those opportunities for them to contribute their skills to our armed forces, and bring those skills back to our ‘day job’ too.”