Officials at a Birmingham hospital which treats injured British troops have angrily accused senior Army officers of using it as a "political pawn".

Dr David Rosser said some of the Army's top brass had attempted to undermine the work of the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine, based at Selly Oak Hospital, by leaking allegations that wounded soldiers were mistreated.

He claimed it was part of a campaign promoting the "indefensible and illogical" argument that dedicated military hospitals provided better care.

Mr Rosser, medical director at the University Hospital Birmingham NHS Trust, which runs the Queen Elizabeth and Selly Oak hospitals, said the leaks were "unacceptable and motivated by ignorance".

He spoke out after reports yesterday that an injured teenage soldier, Jamie Cooper, had to sleep in his own faeces after staff at the Selly Oak facility allowed his colostomy bag to overflow.

The parents of the 18-year-old, who was injured last November while serving with the Royal Green Jackets’ in Basra, Iraq, have written to hospital executives alleging he was denied proper care.

There were also claims that another soldier, Alex Weldon, had to wait two-and-a-half-hours before he received his pain relief.

The allegations were made in letters passed to a national newspaper by what were described as "deeply alarmed" senior military sources.

Dr Rosser said elements in the Army were motivated by a campaign to send wounded soldiers to military hospitals rather than NHS facilities, where they were treated in mixed wards with civilians.

He said: "In most organisations – and certainly in the NHS – complaints are part of life. But Mr Weldon has not lodged a complaint and these concerns have never been shared with us.

"It is reprehensible that the person who leaked these letters believes it is better to share them with the press than with the people who are responsible for the health care of the soldier involved.

"My opinion is that this had been done by senior people in the Army – not the military – who believe erroneously and without any foundation in the opinion that their soldiers will be better looked after in a military hospital, which is an indefensible and illogical argument.

"They are choosing to put individual patients and my staff in the middle of political arguments and I believe it is reprehensible that we are being made to be a political pawn. This behaviour is unacceptable and motivated by ignorance."

Ten years ago there were eight military hospitals in the UK. However, the last of them – the Royal Naval Hospital Haslar, in Gosport, Hampshire – will soon close.

Dr Rosser, a consultant in intensive care medicine at UHB, said senior Army officials hoped to put pressure on the Government to keep those facilities open.

But, he said, military hospitals could not provide the specialist treatment needed by soldiers with complex injuries.

The RCDM opened six years ago and has military medical personnel working alongside NHS staff.

Last year, it was at the centre of controversy after a soldier in a mixed ward claimed he had been verbally abused by a civilian patient opposed to the Iraq war. But the hospital was defended by Prime Minister Tony Blair and senior medical officials in the military who praised its specialist care and expertise.

Dr Rosser added: "We had a military patient with shrapnel wounds who needed eight specialty consultants to look after him during his care.

"At least two of these specialities do not exist in the military. The military does not have the expertise."