A year on since a new dental contract was introduced by Ministers at least 30,000 people are waiting to find a dentist in Yorkshire.

There are now 10 per cent fewer dental practices in the region carrying out NHS dentistry compared to two years ago.

The most dramatic exodus has been in the East Riding where a third of dental practices have quit the NHS. Nearly a quarter have left in Leeds and one in seven in North Yorkshire where 16,000 people are waiting for an NHS dentist.

Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Phil Willis said £37m was being spent on dentistry in North Yorkshire alone but 10,000 of his constituents were without care after 60 per cent of dentists had quit the NHS.

"It's got infinitely worse in the last year," he said.

"We are now in a position where NHS dentistry exists only in name.

"What I find deeply disturbing is that patients who need NHS dentistry – like families with children and the elderly – are most often the people who can't get it. Vast swathes of people across Yorkshire aren't in a position to pay."

Beverley and Holderness MP Graham Stuart said he was getting increasing numbers of complaints about poor access: "It's very distressing to people concerned and it feels like a betrayal of promises of access to NHS dentistry for all within two years by the Prime Minister in 1999."

"That's not happening. People should be entitled to receive this service."

A second survey by campaign group Challenge, co-founded by Scarborough dentist John Renshaw, the former chairman of the British Dental Association, claims NHS dentistry is "perilously close to collapse".

It surveyed 2,300 dentists finding only one in five were currently taking on new patients although half had accepted more patients in the last year.

Four out of five said the new contract had failed to give them more time with patients and had failed to take them off a "treadmill" of care. Most said they were carrying out fewer complex treatments and instead extracting more teeth.

Half were struggling to meet their targets and two in five said they would like to quit the NHS.

Mr Renshaw said major changes were needed in the contract. Treatment targets needed to be dropped and patient charges readjusted.

"If you speak to dentists who are fully committed to the NHS they are really miserable because the Government is clearly not moving on this – it's in denial," he said.

"It claims everything is fine, everybody is happy, patients are getting treatment and don't need to go private. The fact is that's not true."

The Yorkshire Post's survey reveals huge differences across the region in access to care although differences in the way information is collected make comparisons with previous years difficult.

Nearly half the 30,000 people on waiting lists live in North Yorkshire while 8,500 are waiting in Kirklees.

Care appears to be better in South Yorkshire. In Rotherham, officials estimated about 90,000 people were treated in 2005-6 but in the 11 months to February they believe 109,000 had been seen.

In Hull, two new practices are due to open shortly for 10,000 patients and in North East Lincolnshire 18,000 people have been given places in the last 18 months.

In Leeds 19,000 people have been allocated to new practices since last April when 47,500 patients lost NHS treatment as 29 dental practices quit the NHS.

Provision in Calderdale has increased significantly with seven new dentists working in the area, 7,000 new dental places created and new provision for emergencies.

John Beal, dental public health consultant for Yorkshire, said: "Measures now in place are improving access to NHS dentists in the region although clearly there have been difficulties in some areas as changes to dentistry have been implemented."

He said many of the dental practices which left the NHS were already mainly doing private work. In West Yorkshire 10 per cent of practices had left but this had only led to a loss of four per cent in capacity.

He added: "Under the new system this money is retained in Yorkshire and can be used to re-commission extra capacity from other dentists. We are actively seeking out dentists interested in setting up practices in the region."

The Yorkshire Post's Stop the Rot campaign is calling on Ministers to improve access to affordable NHS dentistry.

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