Work starts on health and care campus in Catterick

The joint project between the MOD and NHS will deliver transformative integrated health and care services to the military and civilian communities of Catterick and the wider Richmondshire areas.

The Catterick Integrated Care Campus is a first-of-its-kind MOD-NHS partnership and will enable shared estate, expertise and learning to optimise the health and care services for people across the area.

Wendy Balmain, the North Yorkshire director of NHS Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (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 have 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."

Subject to further clinical review, the services which may be delivered from the Catterick Integrated Care Campus could include GP services including out of hours, other clinical services such as sexual health, orthopaedics, heart failure, horizons drugs and alcohol, and pain management.

It will also offer imaging and other diagnostic services such as x-ray, ultrasound, audiology, community services like paediatrics, adult and child mental health, physiotherapy/rehabilitation, speech and language therapy, and NHS dentistry provision for adults and children with a disability or serious mental illness.

MOD's air commodore Darren Ellison, UK Strategic Command’s Head of Healthcare & Strategic Plans, added: "The Catterick Integrated Care Campus affords the MOD and NHS a hugely significant opportunity to make a tangible difference in addressing health inequalities and barriers to access of healthcare, improving health outcomes for our civilian and military communities."

Other services that the new facility will offer once it opens in 2026, include 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, and military occupational dentistry.

Karina Dare, primary care estates strategy lead at NHS Property Services, said: "Existing primary care providers do work closely to support patient care, but the reality remains that buildings currently in use are old, overcrowded, and not fit for purpose.

"Supporting the ICB and working with DIO and UK Strategic Command on this joint Infrastructure project has been a first for us. Sharing our skills and experience in healthcare property development and strategic asset management has resulted in a solution which we can all be proud of."

The MOD’s Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) awarded the construction contract to Tilbury Douglas.

Subcontractors from within a fifty-mile radius of Catterick are being prioritised for this work to support local businesses and veterans.

John Weatherby of DIO’s major programmes and projects team added: “The Catterick Integrated Care Campus, which is being delivered by MPP, represents an opportunity to consolidate, in a state-of-the-art facility, military medical and dental services which are currently dispersed across the largest military garrison in the UK.

"The new facility will allow the MOD to not only work in partnership with NHS but also reduce our estate footprint and operational running costs, while continuing to provide an exceptional service to personnel.”