THE closure of a Whiteley dental practice to NHS patients is to be brought up in the House of Commons.

Fareham MP Mark Hoban has vowed to raise the issue before Parliament to highlight the chronic shortage of National Health Service dentists in the area.

The MP is due to meet Ian Capewell who runs Whiteley Dental Practice on Friday to find out why he feels unable to continue treating people on the NHS.

He said: "I want to know why, after taking on patients a year ago, has he found that the economics of it don't stand up.

"I am not sure how soon I will be able to do so but I am committed to raising the subject of why more and more dentists are moving away from the NHS before Parliament. I want to raise it as soon as I am able to as the whole situation in the area is becoming desperate."

Dr Capewell told the Daily Echo that although he took on new patients last year he had no idea at the time he would be turning to the private sector.

He said he stopped taking on new patients in the summer when he first started considering moving away from the NHS.

He reiterated that his decision to turn to the private Denplan scheme was a difficult but necessary one.

He told the Daily Echo: "It was a question of having to, at the end of the day we just wouldn't have been able to survive if we continued as we were. It had to be done on those grounds."

As reported in the Daily Echo, Dr Capewell informed his patients at the weekend that he had decided to go private.

A year ago the surgery opened its doors to a flood of new patients, who queued for hours in order to get a place on the books.

Dr Capewell said that during the course of the year it had become apparent that the business needed to change if it was to survive.

His decision is one being made by scores of dentists across the region.

Figures released by the Department of Health showed that in September 2002 there were 565 dentists in Hampshire, a year later there were only 431.