PATIENTS in Whiteley are facing a 30-mile round trip to Southampton to find a dentist on the National Health Service after news broke that their local practice was going private.

Patients have been told that Whiteley Dental Practice can no longer treat people on the NHS.

Dentist Ian Capewell said he had been left with no choice but to go private if the business was to continue.

Today the primary care trust in charge of providing dental services in Whiteley said its hands were tied if dentists chose to go private.

In a statement, the Mid Hampshire PCT said: "The distribution of dental practices isn't determined by the PCT. The choice to become an NHS provider is initially the prerogative of the individual dentist.

"The trust recognises that there are difficulties in dental registration, not just in Whiteley but across the locality and with neighbouring PCTs, and we are all working towards increasing the number of registrations."

The nearest dentists now offering NHS treatment are in Cosham, Farlington or Southampton - all requiring round trips of about 30 miles along the M27.

A year ago patients queued in their hundreds to get a place on the books at Whiteley Dental Practice when it was offering places on the NHS.

Twelve months on, Dr Capewell said his business could not survive unless it went over to the private Denplan scheme that costs an average of £15 a month.

In a letter to his patients, Dr Capewell says he has found it increasingly difficult to provide a high quality service under the NHS.

"The current system means that our time for each treatment is very limited and so are the options for treatment we can offer patients," he said.

Dr Capewell added that waiting times for appointments were several months long and that delays in the surgery were commonplace.

The Whiteley Dental Practice is the second NHS surgery to close in the area after the Daily Echo reported how Gary Howe was also turning his Southampton practice private - leaving just three in the city who take NHS patients.

Dr Howe agreed that the funding problems meant he also had to go private. He worked out that in order to see all his NHS patients he would only be able to offer minute-long appointments, leaving him with no option but to go private.