A GOVERNMENT cash injection into NHS dentistry should ease the worst shortages in the region, according to health bosses.

Health Secretary Dr John Reid announced yesterday that he was investing an extra £368m for dental services.

Dr Reid also launched a new recruitment drive to appoint an extra 1,000 dentists by the end of October.

Apart from targeting dentists who have left the NHS, the Government is looking to recruit abroad, including new European Union countries like Poland.

While much of the North-East is still reasonably well served with NHS dentists compared to the South, North Yorkshire has some of the worst blackspots in Britain.

In Scarborough, where more than 3,000 people queued to be registered at a newly-opened NHS practice in February, health bosses expressed optimism.

Michael Whitworth, chief executive of Scarborough, Whitby and Ryedale Primary Care Trust (PCT), said: "The announcement fits in very well with what we are already trying to do."

Two months ago, the PCT announced a £2m scheme to increase NHS provision for another 11,000 patients over the next four years.

"I would expect that we can at least double that figure now. If the demand is still there, we could even go up to 17,000 extra places," said Mr Whitworth.

In line with other PCTs in problem areas, the Scarborough authorities are looking to recruit dentists from places like Poland.

It is hoped that three new NHS dentists will begin practising in the Autumn, two in Scarborough and the third in Ryedale.

Mr Whitworth said: "Without advertising, we have already got enough people signed up to make up a list for another dentist in Scarborough."

John Renshaw, the Scarborough dentist who chairs the British Dental Association, also welcomed Dr Reid's announcement.

He said: "At long last the Government has begun to take notice of the queues and the distress of the tens of thousands of people without access to an NHS dentist.

"It's not that dentists have been walking away from the NHS, more that the NHS has been walking away from dentistry. The announcement marks a positive first step on the long walk back."

News that the Government plans to increase the training places for dental students was also welcomed by the universities of Hull and York, which run dentistry courses.