Health managers say they are filling the gaps in Morecambe Bay's dental service after providing new NHS places for thousands more people, reports Jennie Dennett.

Following increasing discontent about a lack of NHS dentists, the Morecambe Bay Primary Care Trust has negotiated with four practices to expand NHS provision offering treatment for another 4,400 people over the next 12 months.

As part of a separate £716,000 funding boost, the trust has also managed to secure another 3,000 NHS treatments across Morecambe Bay between January and October and said it was on target to provide an additional 13,000 to 14,000 NHS treatments before April 2005.

It is hoped these efforts will ease a chronic shortage of NHS dental care in Morecambe Bay where only half of the area's 300,000 people are registered with an NHS dentist. Recently, The Westmorland Gazette reported on a Kendal man who travelled as far as Chorley to find NHS care.

Helen Fothergill, the trust's dental lead, said four practices had agreed to offer more NHS care through new Personal Dental Service contracts. The deal offers them more flexibility about the treatment they provide on the NHS.

She said she could not reveal where these practices were to stop them being inundated with patients but assured they included practices in South Lakeland.

Negotiations are continuing with another ten practices and it is also hoped a Department of Health campaign to recruit more dentists from across the EU will further boost the amount of NHS dental care in the Bay.

The Morecambe Bay PCT is also setting up a telephone helpline to be launched in December and has appointed dental nurses to deliver the service. The system is designed to take the pressure off dental practices from managing waiting lists and to make it easier for people to get NHS care.

"The nurses (manning the line) will provide a single point of access not only for emergency treatment but will be able to book patients on to waiting lists and direct them to practices who are able to open their books to them," said Mrs Fothergill. "They will be the way people access dental care either to get emergency care, register with a family dentist or for a one-off treatment whichever is their preference.

"Obviously we will be trying to get people to a dentist near to them, it depends on what individual needs are. Initially we won't be able to put everybody into precisely the place they want to go to but in 12 months time I anticipate we should be able to meet most people's needs."

Mrs Fothergill said as a result of the £716,000 funding boost, and more funds it is hoping to secure from the Department of Health, the trust was providing more access to NHS dental services.

"The resources we have in the first instance will be supported by about five or six more dentists and, if all the funding comes through, I think that will make a significant difference."