A West Yorkshire practice has informed patients it will only be providing private care from September. The practice was one of the last providers of NHS dental care in the area.

Manor Square Dental Practice informed BBC News that it was ceasing NHS care due to a “chronic lack of investment”.

A spokesperson for the practice said, “Like a lot of our patients, we are upset as well.

"It is a great shame that we have not been able to make it work on the NHS, but we have tried and have been proud to have lasted as long as we did.”

Paul Ellul, practice owner and dentist, said that providing NHS services is no longer economically viable. He commented, “It's got to a point where - especially now with the rising interest rates and inflation - it is not possible to continue.

"It has to work - and if the numbers don't add up we just simply can't do it.

"People don't realise that is the fundamental issue - there are dental labs charging more than we are getting for a dental repair.”

Alex Sobel, Labour MP for Leeds North West, told BBC News that he was “disappointed” the practice had withdrawn NHS treatment without any “real consultation or notice”.

Alex added, "They've closed the NHS list entirely and are forcing everybody to become a private patient.”

However, he acknowledged that this is a widespread issue, "Fundamentally, the system for funding NHS dentistry is broken, and I have some sympathy with dental practices that can't make it work with the way that the government funds it."

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said, “We are working to improve access to NHS dental care and have already increased the funding practices receive for high needs patients to encourage dentists to provide more NHS treatments.

"We have amended the guidelines, so dental therapists and hygienists can deliver more treatments - as well as making it easier to recruit dentists from overseas - and we will be setting out further measures to improve access shortly."

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