Helping our heroes: We learn all about the miracle workers of Shropshire's Veterans' Orthopaedic Service
American writer Joseph Campbell once said: “A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.”
Such a mantra lives in the heart of so many of the men and women who serve or have served in the British Armed Forces. But when they need a hero and a safe pair of hands, to whom can they turn?
Based at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital (RJAH), Gobowen, the Veterans’ Orthopaedic Service (VOS) provides military veterans with high quality care from a military-led team, whilst also providing welfare services.
Set up in 2013 by Lt Col Carl Meyer, the VOS is the largest hospital-based veterans service in the UK with over 35,000 veterans seen since its inception.
The service was conceived, designed and driven locally by RJAH and Shropshire Council. It receives no direction, support, or funding from outside of Shropshire, and is not a nationally commissioned service.
“I spent 20 years as a serving military surgeon and the last few years I've been a reservist,” said Lt Col Meyer. “When I set the VOS up back in 2013, I'd been on a trip to America and I’d been at the Walter Reed Hospital – one of their big military hospitals.
“I was very impressed with how they looked after veterans and their serving military people there and I thought, well, what can I do back in the UK?
“I’d just been appointed as a consultant here at RJAH, And of course, RJAH is a national centre of excellence for orthopaedic services.
“That means it’s very well suited for running a specialist service for veterans.
“The premise was to make those gold standard services that RJAH provides available to veterans, and provide them through a military-led team whilst also providing welfare support.
“We have created a bespoke service for veterans that is the best the NHS can offer, and it's really just grown.”
Demand for services has led to the development of the Headley Court Veterans Orthopaedic Centre at RJAH. This is the first dedicated veterans building within an NHS hospital trust.
It consists of an outpatient department, a veterans hub, a minor procedures theatre, simulation suite/training rooms and offices. Opened by the Duchess of Edinburgh in 2023, it provides an environment that veterans can recognise and identify with.
Having helped thousands of veterans, Lt Col Meyer is particularly proud of how the VOS has functioned within the existing NHS system.
“The big achievement was making it all work within an NHS framework,” he said. “Our managers here had to work very, very hard to make it possible for veterans to come from all over the country to see us.
“You have to have an NHS GP, and you have to be an NHS patient because there’s no additional funding for this service. But as long as you’ve got that, you can come along and see us. It’s allowed us to see well over 35,000 veterans. That is more than any other service in the entire country by a long way.”
As one would expect, Lt Col Meyer and the VOS team have always derived a great deal of fulfilment from what they do.
“It’s extremely rewarding work,” he said. “I just got called by one of my spinal colleagues who was seeing a former Welsh guardsman whose main problem was actually a terribly arthritic hip.
“He just rang me up and said ‘I’ve got a veteran here with this problem. He really needs a hip replacement. Can you see him?’ We were able to see him straight away. And that’s the sort of difference with being somewhere like RJAH. It’s a smallish hospital. Everyone knows one another and we’re able to do things like that which you couldn’t do in a big hospital.
“It’s a more bespoke service where you’re treating people as individuals, and that’s what we really try to do with our veteran patients.”
Naturally, over the years there have been individuals who have stayed in Lt Col Meyer’s mind.
“We’ve had people who really stay in the memory, more because of what they’ve done on their military side,” he said.
“We had a chap who was on the HMS Sheffield when it was hit by an Exocet missile in the Falklands War.
“I remember reading about that in the press and to meet people who were there when these things happened, it’s a real privilege to hear their first-hand accounts of these things.
“Somebody else who really springs to mind was a fellow who was in the biggest airborne operation that’s ever been mounted – when the Allies parachuted troops across the Rhine as part of the invasion into Germany.
“He tells a very intense story of where he’s parachuting in and there’s a couple of German soldiers having their lunch underneath him and he thought he was going to get bayoneted as soon as they saw him.
“Again, it’s a privilege to hear these stories and it certainly makes the job very interesting.”
It’s no secret that things in the world of health care are tough right now, and Lt Col Meyer is passionate about raising as much awareness as possible of the excellent work he and his team are doing.
“The big thing we struggle with – and you can’t get around this at the moment – is that it is a difficult time for health care across the entire country, and trying to get veterans’ health care on the map as a priority is difficult.
“We have great support from Helen Morgan, our local MP. Stuart Anderson, South Shropshire’s MP, is very supportive as well. But it’s getting support from central government, where policy is made, that would really help us.
“General awareness of what we are doing will be the key to help with this and allow us to push our services on even further.”
It comes as no surprise at all that a raft of volunteers and former patients have been quick to sing the praises of the VOS.
Craig Harrison, veteran patient, former sniper, and author of The Longest Kill, said: “Col Meyer has an upfront, military-style understanding. There’s no messing around – it’s what I can relate to.”
While volunteer Stephen Milgate said: “It’s an honour to volunteer here and support other veterans like myself.”
Patient Stephen Lancashire added: “On Friday, June 6, I attended my 12-month review post op on my total hip replacement at the Robert Jones Agnes Hunt (RJAH) Veterans’ Orthopaedic Service. I have now been discharged from their care, completely recovered, drug and pain free. And for that I will be eternally grateful.”
And volunteer Susan Heer-Bedford said: “I too feel it’s an honour to volunteer with the team at this wonderful centre for veterans and their families. You don’t have to be a patient at the hospital to visit us. Just pop in for the banter and a cuppa.”
It would seem that the safest and most caring hands for our soldiers are, indeed, right here in Shropshire.
For further information https://www.rjah.nhs.uk/veterans/
