NHS OpRestore

NHS OpRestore We are NHS OpRestore - The Veterans Physical Health and Wellbeing Service

In an exciting update, today is publication day for our Clinical Director, Shehan Hettiaratchy's (H) debut book, The Car...
12/03/2026

In an exciting update, today is publication day for our Clinical Director, Shehan Hettiaratchy's (H) debut book, The Careful Surgeon.

We are incredibly proud to have H at the helm of Op RESTORE, and the incredible stories that he shares in this publication we hope will go a long way to reassure the Veterans coming through our service that compassion, camaraderie and above all understanding, are at the heart of what we do for our Armed Forces Community.

You can purchase The Careful Surgeon now at all good book shops and retailers, and to H's delight, listen to the audio-book version read by the man himself!

Congratulations again, H!

It’s Sexual Abuse and Sexual Violence Awareness Week, and we want to join our NHS colleagues in raising awareness of sex...
05/02/2026

It’s Sexual Abuse and Sexual Violence Awareness Week, and we want to join our NHS colleagues in raising awareness of sexual assault referral centres (SARCs).

These services offer dedicated care and support to anyone who has been r***d, sexually assaulted or abused at any time in their life, and are available to call 24 hours a day across England.

Anyone can contact a SARC 24 hours a day, every day of the year, to book an appointment.

To find your nearest SARC, visit:
https://lnkd.in/ebWdPwvT

For more information on help following sexual assault and abuse and SARCs, visit:
www.nhs.uk/sarcs

We will never forget those members of the coalition forces who made the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq and Afghanistan. We w...
23/01/2026

We will never forget those members of the coalition forces who made the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq and Afghanistan. We were proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with our allies then, and we would be proud to do so again.

For those former members of the UK Armed Forces who are in need support with their physical health as a consequence of their service, we are here for you. An entire team, all very proudly a part of the UK Armed Forces Community.

Ask your GP for a referral into NHS OpRESTORE, or visit oprestore.nhs.uk

From all of us at NHS OpRESTORE; Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year! This year has been a year full of developmen...
22/12/2025

From all of us at NHS OpRESTORE;

Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

This year has been a year full of developments and updates, all to ensure we continue to support as many Armed Forces Veterans and their physical health as much as possible. If you or someone you know could do with our help, please do see our website for more info, and ask your GP for a referral into OpRESTORE.

Visit www.oprestore.nhs.uk

Ahead of Remembrance Week this month, the King visited Chatfield Health Care in London to meet Armed Forces veterans and...
17/11/2025

Ahead of Remembrance Week this month, the King visited Chatfield Health Care in London to meet Armed Forces veterans and learn about the specialist NHS support services veterans can access.

We were thrilled that our very own Senior Nurse and Veteran Philip Hall went along to meet with the King, alongside Sue Ferrier from OpCOURAGE, to share with him the work and support that we offer our Armed Forces Community within the NHS.

We are for every Veteran to support with their service-attributable physical health needs (which includes the King, too, should he need us!), so please ask your GP for a referral if you think we could help you or share our service with someone you know.

www.oprestore.nhs.uk

17/11/2025

Today we came together to honour those who sacrificed their lives in defence of our freedoms in conflicts since the start of the First World War in 1914.

We hosted in-person Acts of Remembrance on each of our three main sites and former and serving staff members of the armed forces proudly attended in uniform.

We're proud to have a strong veteran community at our Trust and recognise the unique skills army personnel bring to the NHS. 💙

We're also proud to host Op RESTORE, which provides physical care and support to veterans in England ➡️ https://www.oprestore.nhs.uk/

This Remembrance day, we are casting our minds back to a team trip to the National Memorial Arboretum - a visit to pay o...
11/11/2025

This Remembrance day, we are casting our minds back to a team trip to the National Memorial Arboretum - a visit to pay our respects to those who made the ultimate sacrifice before us, and the names of friends and colleagues we served proudly alongside.

We will remember them, today and every day.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them.
09/11/2025

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

This year’s conference, and indeed NHS OpRESTORE running and supporting Veterans would not be possible without our incre...
31/10/2025

This year’s conference, and indeed NHS OpRESTORE running and supporting Veterans would not be possible without our incredible team!

We are small but mighty, ensuring that each patient that comes through is with someone who is in the Armed Forces Community at every step – whether that be Veteran, Family Member, Spouse or Reservist. You don’t need to explain, we all just get it.

The team worked incredibly hard to not only run a brilliant Conference, but to keep our Service running and our patients attended to during a very busy week. We are so grateful for all of their tireless efforts.

Thank you!

The closing day of our Conference this year had an OpRESTORE focus, showcasing our latest developments and collaboration...
29/10/2025

The closing day of our Conference this year had an OpRESTORE focus, showcasing our latest developments and collaborations, and exploring how we continue to future proof our service in response to the challenges we had heard the previous day.

Our Service Manager Beth Lambert brilliantly covered the last 9 years of OpRESTORE, showcasing the lessons learned along the way and how we are not staying still in response to the need of Veterans. Brian Chenier MBE of Blesma, The Limbless Veterans, delivered a brilliant talk, echoing the theme of the importance of collaboration that we heard across the Conference. Our newest OpRESTORE team member and Veteran Connor Postles then spoke of his experience and his journey through our service as a patient, and how it helped him get to where he is today. An invaluable perspective that we are striving to continue learning from.

We moved on to look at measuring and improving our impact, through the work Neil Brocklehurst and Natalia Sánchez-Thompson are developing for OpRESTORE – integrating AI into our pathway to free up valuable human resource for our number one priority; patients. We are also grateful to Anisha Worbs of the Office for Veterans' Affairs and George Chewning of USUVB who shared both how VALOUR seeks to measure the impact of the current provision, and to explore how the US measures impact and develops provision there.

We moved into parallel sessions to unpick both OVA Health Innovation Fund Programmes, and the work of the ADVANCE study which looks at the long-term effects of war. A huge thank you to Neil Kitchener of Cardiff University, Anthony Bull of ADVANCE study and Centre for Blast Injury Studies, Doug Barrett of Leicester University, Nicola Fear, Anna Verey, Alex Kumar and Harriet Kemp, all of ADVANCE study. All talks were a fascinating insight into the changing landscape of enduring care of our Veterans.

Our conference closed with a fantastic talk from Dave Henson MBE, Veteran and Paralympian, who spoke of his personal experience of war injuries, rehabilitation and his subsequent sporting career. The theme of enduring, understanding care and collaboration was evident through his own story - we are so grateful for Dave for sharing his experiences.

A heartfelt thank you to all of our speakers who took time to share with us their experiences, findings and views on the current outlook of provision for our Armed Forces Communities, at home and overseas. Thank you to all of our attendees in the room and online, too. Both our closing day and the entire conference gave much needed insight into the direction of travel and the gaps in provision that need to be closed if we want to make the UK the best place to be a Veteran, and showcased some excellent work that is already being done to support the veterans of now and of the future.

Continuing our coverage of last month’s conference, we pick back up on our first full day of Lessons from the Frontline,...
23/10/2025

Continuing our coverage of last month’s conference, we pick back up on our first full day of Lessons from the Frontline, which had a particular Ukraine and International focus.

We were honoured to have the conference opened by Ambassador of Ukraine to the United Kingdom, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi. His address was urgent and compelling: telling of the stark situation for Ukrainian soldiers and civilians alike, and the need for exploration and discussions such as the ones we were embarking on that day to ensure not only that we fully understood, but that we could better prepare ourselves and the sector for the reality of modern warfare. We are so grateful to him for taking the time to speak to us.

We were also thrilled to be joined by the Provost and Deputy President of Imperial College London, Peter Haynes, and Kate Davies, the Director of Health and Justice, Armed Forces and Sexual Assault Services Commissioning for NHS England to start the day.

Our first talk was from the Superhumans Center Team, a groundbreaking centre for war trauma specialising in prosthetics, reconstructive surgery, rehabilitation and psychological support for war-affected adults and children. Again, we were honoured to have Stepan Kuchabskyi, Danylo Turkevych and Oksana Zelinska join us to share what they’re seeing – injury patterns, the gaps in provision and then to further explore challenges and triumphs over their past 3 years of operation. It was incredible to see some of the cutting-edge work they’re undertaking in the circumstances they are having to work in.

The rest of the day was spent unpicking challenges such as large-scale casualty response, enduring care for war-affected populations, and the long-term management of war casualties. A huge thank you to our speakers Hailie Uren of the Ukrainian Ministry of Health, Mike Prentice of NHS England and Andy Kent of TReC, who kindly sent us an update direct from Ukraine. We would also like to thank Jonathan Leach OBE of NHS England, George Chewning of USUVB, Anthony Bull of Imperial College and David Wightwick of UK-Med for their invaluable insight.

To close day 1, Ben Hall, journalist and author of ‘Saved’, spoke profoundly about his experiences getting injured, rescued and his subsequent road to rehabilitation whilst covering the war in Ukraine for FOX news. It was a stark reminder of the realities of everything we had explored throughout the day, a message of hope and positivity, and further proof of just how vital enduring, effective care is for those injured at war – civilian and soldier alike.

Thank you ever so much for all who attended, joined online and to all of our speakers across day 1 – it was a compelling day which will stay with us all for years to come. 🇺🇦🇬🇧

NHS OpRESTORE Conference 2025: Lessons from the Front Line 🇺🇦🇬🇧After a good week or so getting back to our day-to-day, w...
08/10/2025

NHS OpRESTORE Conference 2025: Lessons from the Front Line 🇺🇦🇬🇧

After a good week or so getting back to our day-to-day, we are reflecting on a fantastic few days in London where we pulled together colleagues from across multiple sectors to hear first-hand about modern conflict challenges and explore our readiness for the future, both at home and overseas.

We were honoured to be joined by General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ambassador of Ukraine to the United Kingdom to deliver our opening address, members of the Superhumans Center team - the specialist trauma clinic in Ukraine - along with George Chewning from the US Ukraine Veterans Bridge as well as multiple esteemed colleagues from across NHS England, Imperial College London, AI4Health and beyond.

It served as an incredible opportunity to unpick the bright spots and pain points of our existing provision, and to really investigate what we need to pull together across Government, the NHS and the third sector to best future proof our services, and ensure we can offer effective support to our allies overseas.

A huge thank you to Imperial College London and AI for Healthcare Centres (AI4Health) for their support in hosting our event, Brian Chenier MBE of Blesma, The Limbless Veterans for the fantastic photography, all of our fantastic speakers and attendees, and of course our ever-brilliant OpRESTORE team. We will share more in the coming days!

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