IT was only a matter of time before dental practices in Bolton - and throughout the country - closed their doors to new NHS patients.

But, of course, it isn't only new patients who are being turned away by dentists. Longstanding NHS patients have been, and are being, forced to pay for private treatment by dentists who have opted out of the NHS.

I was forced to leave the dental practice I had been with for many years when I received a letter telling me they were going private - so that they could offer patients a better service!

I could have stayed with the practice, had I agreed to pay for private treatment. I decided not to, and was lucky enough to be taken on by another practice.

Sadly, now in Bolton, and most of the rest of the country, this option is no longer open to patents.

But this situation can no longer be tolerated. Government intervention is urgently required.

If the Attlee government had been as spineless as the Blair government, the NHS would not have been born. Attlee and co brought in the scheme in spite of the fact that most doctors were opposed to it.

Dentists and GPs wanting to practice in this country must agree to prioritise NHS patients.

But importantly, doctors and dentists must be given the funding and support they need in order to give the very best treatment to their patients. Doctors and dentists must want to work within the NHS, and they can only do this with the necessary backing from the government.

Brian Derbyshire

Ribchester Grove

Bolton