A new dental school and treatment hub is coming to Gloucester, as the University of Gloucestershire and the NHS Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board have announced a 3 million pound investment to tackle local dental care shortages. The project, announced on 22 April 2026, will see the Three Counties Dental School and a new NHS treatment hub open at the university’s City Campus in the former Debenhams building in Kings Square in 2027.
Construction work at the site is beginning this month, with Markey Building Services Limited contracted to deliver the facility. Once completed, the school will initially offer a dental hygiene programme to help train the next generation of dental professionals and address a significant regional workforce shortage.
From spring 2027, the Gloucestershire Dental Treatment Hub will open within the campus featuring six treatment rooms. This hub will provide NHS community dental services, offering routine appointments as well as extended evening and weekend urgent care for eligible patients. This development aims to improve local access to care, where recent reports showed that only 29.5 per cent of adults and 50.7 per cent of children in the county had seen an NHS dentist in the previous two years. Additionally, 16.8 per cent of five-year-olds in the area are affected by dental decay.
Dame Clare Marchant, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Gloucestershire, said the project represents a significant investment in both students and the wider community, providing the skills needed to address workforce shortages while improving care access. Christina Worle, Dental Strategy Clinical Lead at the NHS Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board, noted that the investment supports training the future workforce, helping to build a more resilient NHS dental service for the future.
This initiative comes amid broader concerns about the availability of dental services. Research published by Healthwatch England in March 2026 highlighted that the proportion of people struggling financially who have used private dentistry has almost doubled from 14% to 27% between 2023 and 2025.
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