MoD rethink urged over dental care at Army health centre

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has been criticised over limiting dental provision for civilians at a planned new joint health facility.

The Integrated Care Campus, at Catterick, North Yorkshire, aims to enhance health and care services for service personnel and civilians.

One county councillor said restricting dental access to soldiers was an “absolute scandal”.

The MoD said it had no plans to allow the dental facilities to be shared.

The leader of North Yorkshire County Council’s Independent group Stuart Parsons said the authority and Richmondshire District Council should withdraw their support for the scheme until it was made clear residents were not being “left with the crumbs”.

“This is an absolute scandal,” he said.

“If the MoD wants to reserve everything for the military then they should pay for it all and not take it from our budgets and money from each of our councils and from central government which was meant to be for NHS provision.”

The centre is expected to cost £55m, including a £12.69m contribution from the NHS, and is due to be completed in 2024, subject to business case approval.

Catterick Garrison has a population of about 13,000, while neighbouring Catterick village has more than 3,000 residents and the larger Richmondshire area has about 56,000.

An 18th surgery room would, an NHS official said, be for members of the community unable to access dental care elsewhere.

Councillors expressed concerns the MoD was not allowing the 17 dental facilities to be shared when not in use by the Army.

Councillor Karin Sedgwick said this meant the families of military personnel would also be unable to access them.

An NHS official said they hoped to bring the MoD around to the “concept of integration sharing”.

Councillor Kevin Foster said he thought the proposal needed “looking at seriously”.

An MoD spokesperson said it was “continually reviewing the campus scheme, but had no plans to allow the dental facilities to be shared”.