Building work has begun on a new health complex in North Yorkshire which will bring integrated health services to the military and civilian communities in Catterick and wider Richmondshire.
The joint ICB and ministry of defence (MOD) project will deliver primary care services, which may include general practice, social prescribing, community services, military occupational dentistry and defence health recovery group teams (see box for full list). However, all services are still subject to clinical review.
It is jointly funded by the NHS and MOD and expected to open in 2026. It will consolidate services that are currently ‘dispersed’ across the large military garrison.
Services available from the ‘health complex’
Subject to clinical review, the services that may be delivered include:
- General Practice services including Out of Hours
- Other clinical services such as: Sexual Health, Orthopaedics, Heart Failure, Horizons Drugs and Alcohol, Pain Management, and others
- Imaging and other diagnostic services such as: X-ray, Ultrasound, Audiology
- Community services such as: Paediatrics, Adult and Child Mental Health, Physiotherapy/ Rehabilitation, Speech and Language Therapy, NHS dentistry provision for adults and children with a disability or serious mental illness.
- Social Prescribing services which help people in non-medical ways that support their health and wellbeing.
- Defence health recovery group teams: defence occupational health team, defence primary care rehabilitation service, community mental health.
- Military occupational dentistry
Discussions have been happening between the NHS and MOD since 2015 to enhance the range of services for Catterick Garrison and the wider area. These were to address issues including capacity given the growing numbers of military personnel and the residential population, limited service integration, quality of estates and rurality and travel.
Formal planning for the site was granted in October 2022.
Wendy Balmain, the North Yorkshire director of NHS Humber and North Yorkshire ICB said: ‘I am delighted that work has now started on the Catterick integrated care campus which will enable us to deliver modern and fit for the future, health and care for military personnel, their families and veterans – as well as the wider Richmondshire population.
‘This project will deliver a state-of-the-art purpose-built health and care facility to bring together a broad range of services collectively under one roof and provide our Catterick communities with integrated and responsive health and care.
‘All health and care partners working together has brought us one step further to delivering this unique project first conceived by the community in 2015. Thank you to all our partners and the wider community for the continued commitment and energy that is turning this blueprint for integrated care into a reality.’
NHS Humber and North Yorkshire ICB’s deputy place director, North Yorkshire, Lisa Pope, added: ‘The Catterick integrated care campus has been almost 10 years in the making, but with construction work under way, our vision is inching ever closer to becoming reality.
‘Together with our partners from the MOD, NHS Property Services and local authority, we’re looking forward to seeing people at public drop-in events and explaining more about what the integrated care campus will bring to Catterick and the wider Richmondshire community.’
Project manager at the MOD’s defence structure organisation’s major programmes and project team, John Weatherby, said the new campus would reduce the estate footprint and operational running costs.
Earlier this year two armed forces hubs launched in Somerset for all members of the armed forces community including those serving, their families and veterans.
