DENTISTS in the Cleveland area are paying the price of treating people on the National Health Service.

They are losing out on Government money and feel they have been given a raw deal in new funding arrangements.

At a private meeting called by Middlesborough Primary Care Trust on Wednesday, local dentists were informed that they would get only a small share of the extra £350m in Government money.

The bulk of the new funding will go to areas where there are problems, where patients wanting free dental care are being turned away.

One dentist who has several practices in Cleveland said: "In those areas, such a Bradford, the Government is throwing money at them to open new practices, buy new equipment, furniture and take on more patients. We are being penalised and feel very aggrieved.

"We have an extremely high level of NHS provision but we are going to have to batten down the hatches and, in the end, patients will lose out. Dentists in this area are already surviving on under-funding. Several of my colleagues at Yarm, Norton and Billingham have already gone entirely private, and who can blame them, they are so fed up," he said.

"The British Dental Association feels we should take a stand as we are losing out twice. Had we gone over to private practice, we would have had extra money coming in. We don't have this money and now it appears we are going to be short-changed in funding too."

It was not the PCT's fault entirely, he said. The Government had looked at spending and allocated each PCT funding for NHS treatment in their patches. The whole Middlesborough area is to receive £679,000 for development when £758,000 had been requested.

"So we have a shortfall straightaway. We were told that the budget is increasingly tight.

"The PCT can appeal against the figures but they didn't sound very hopeful of getting the funding increased."

Protests are also being made by members covered by North Tees and Langbaurgh PCTs.

Martin Phillips, head of primary care at Middlesbrough PCT, said: "The Government is committed to investing more money in NHS dentistry, alongside a change in dentists' contracts. The PCT will take over responsibility for commissioning NHS dental care.

"Middlesbrough PCT has received an indication of how much funding it is likely to receive to commission dental care (£9.7m) and this represents an increase of over 19 per cent on last year."