Closed petition PE2032: Improve the support available to injured soldiers and veterans in Scotland
Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to improve the support provided by public bodies to injured soldiers and veterans in Scotland by:
ensuring there are clear patient pathways for their injuries to be treated by appropriate consultants;
establishing a veterans trauma network, similar to that which operates in England and Wales;
ensuring all correspondence, raising concerns or making complaints about their treatment, from veterans to the Scottish Government, is acknowledged and responded to; and
reviewing and seeking to update the way in which the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman handles complaints from veterans about health service.
Previous action taken
I was advised by the UK Veterans Minister, Johnny Mercer MP, to get in touch with the Scottish Veterans Minister.
I have emailed and telephoned the Minister for Veterans, Graeme Dey MSP, but have yet to receive a full response.
Also written to the previous First Minister, who responded with a “thank you for your service”.
Background information
I was injured in the Falklands while serving with the Parachute Regiment. After returning to my trade, I started experiencing sharp pains in the injury to my lower leg. A neuroma was found and excised around June 1986, but months later I started experiencing pain in my lower leg travelling up to my thigh.
In 1992, the pain came back with a vengeance, and I experienced serious electric shocks from the ankle to below the knee. A scan showed I had a very minimum spondylolisthesis.
In 2019, I met with a private neuro-consultant and shared with him my research on a condition called saphenous neuritis, which he had not heard of. The consultant asked to keep my research papers which also contained photos of operations being carried out in America from early 1983, with the condition first described in the 1960s.
This petition was considered by the Scottish Parliament
70 signatures