OUR report 'No room in the dentists chair' (Evesham Journal August 28) highlighting the

crisis in the availability of NHS dental treatment locally could have been reprinted from the archives of your newspaper of 1996. The under funding of the general dental services by the government has forced dentists to selectively or completely provide only private treatment to maintain the high standards of dentistry that patients expect and deserve. However, to have seen so little improvement in local dental services in seven years does not

reflect well on the officers of the South Worcestershire Primary Care Trust or the Health Authority.

Several government incentive schemes to encourage dentists to provide NHS dental treatment

have existed during this time but a small percentage of this money has found its way to general dental practise. Instead the Trust has used these monies to provide Dental Access Centres which have done little to help patients but have secured the jobs of existing community dental service personnel under threat from budget cuts associated with the

Trusts well publicised financial problems. The Trust has cited the difficulty of attracting dentists to the area as a reason for the difficulties that exist but has been able to fully staff contracts to provide dental services to two local prisons from which it makes a small profit.

The dental practise I opened in the Priest Lane Health Centre in 1997, acknowledged by Dr

McMichael as the only significant local improvement in the provision of NHS dental treatment

in recent times was refused any financial support.

R K BURGESS, Cambria

Road, Evesham.