Overseas recruitment could be part of the solution to finding more dentists to treat NHS patients in Morecambe Bay.

Health bosses are targeting European dentists in a bid to attract them to the Bay, where it is estimated that half the population, or around 150,000 people, are in need of an NHS dentist.

However, bosses at Morecambe Bay Primary Care Trust said that they were still working hard on a number of initiatives to ease the problem.

Kendal Dental Care recently became the latest of a number of dental practices to inform the PCT that it will no longer be treating NHS patients.

David Tyson, the PCT's service improvement manager for dental services, said that across the Bay, the number of dentists quitting the NHS had been matched by new dentists.

However, acknowledging there was still an acute shortage of NHS dentists, Mr Tyson said that the PCT was working hard on a number of solutions.

A helpline (01524-405726) has been launched and is being operated by trained dental nurses. They can offer advice to people whose dentists have decided to opt out of NHS care, and they are also the contact point for patients who need emergency treatment at the dental access centre at Kendal's Westmorland General Hospital.

The PCT is also actively trying to sign up practices to a local contract that would commit them to treating NHS patients for three years.

The contracts differ from the current system under which dentists are paid a fee for each treatment that they carry out.

Under the new contracts, practices will receive regular payments from the PCT based on the work they have done previously, and on them treating a population of patients.

They will be free to take decisions on treatments, such as whether a patient needs an appointment every six months, which is in line with government guidelines.

Mr Tyson said that the PCT hoped to have 16 practices out of the 53 across the bay signed up to the contracts by April.

The PCT is also pursuing international recruitment, to try to tempt dentists from across Europe to work in practices.

Work is also being done to encourage practices to treat patients who are not on their list through so-called access sessions, although there has not yet been a big take-up.

The PCT itself has recruited three full-time staff to work in the dental access centres in Barrow and Morecambe.

Mr Tyson acknowledged that the problem of a national shortage of dentists would take longer to solve. The Government was trying to offer more dentist training places in more dental schools.

"We are trying to get our heads round it and get things moving but the core problem will still be there for a little while," he said.

"Until we get more dentists working in practices we are not going to be able to offer this on-going care for people that want it that's the key."

l No one from Kendal Dental Care was available to comment.