NEWS that an NHS dentist was coming to a practice in Settle saw queues formed on Saturday morning, reminiscent to scenes of rationing in wartime Britain.

Even before 6am there was a long line of people waiting outside Oasis dental practice in Station Road where Alan Wright is employing a new dentist to take on NHS patients in just over a week's time.

Posters had been displayed in local GP surgeries and pharmacies advertising the introduction of the new dental practitioner.

By early morning the 800 available places had been filled on a first-come-first-served basis. The new dentist, Stefano Thomadis, who comes from Greece, will start work on May 10.

He will be joined by a graduate from Leeds Dental School on August 9.

Settle has been without an NHS dentist since last Christmas when Tim Bentley, who had been in his practice for 20 years announced he was closing.

Almost straight away, around 1,500 from Mr Bentley's 2,500-patient list transferred to a practice in Grassington run by Dr Thomas Songhurst.

Dr Songhurst and his practice colleagues continue to take on new patients, but there is a waiting list and new patients will have to wait until around September to be seen.

On average he is getting around 20 new patients a day.

Skipton's NHS dentists are currently at capacity and are not taking on any more NHS patients in the foreseeable future.

A spokesman for the Craven, Harrogate and Rural District Primary Care Trust, (CHARD) told the Herald:

"We have long acknowledged the difficulty many Craven patients have in finding an NHS dentist and while we hope the situation in North Craven will improve as a result of this latest move, we remain committed to looking at ways of finding additional capacity across the district.

"As well as these developments in Settle, the PCT is currently trying to recruit its own salaried NHS dentist to work in the Craven area, a move which should further improve the situation locally."

An advert for a salaried dentist - a new type of post where the dentist is employed by the PCT to do exclusively NHS work - has been placed to test interest and see if there is one available given the national shortage.

The PCT says it is also in regular talks with existing practices in Craven to see if there is any scope for expanding current NHS dental capacity. It will be up to the individual independent practices to decide whether they want to, or have room to, employ an additional dentist to take on NHS work.