HEALTH chiefs in East Lancashire hope to tackle the massive problem of patients struggling to find a dentist after being given more control over cash.

Government plans to devolve control over the £1.2billion NHS dental budget to primary care trusts over the next 18 months means money can be better directed where it is needed.

But the move has been given a lukewarm response by dentists, who say more money is needed to stop an exodus to the private sector.

At present, dentists work as contractors and are paid and controlled by the Dental Practice Board.

Under new plans, PCTs, which already provide a limited service using salaried dentists, will take over contracting and commissioning of all dentistry services.

They will be able to spend the budget how they wish to help increase access to dental services and could employ more salaried dentists or offer incentive payments.

East Lancashire children have an average of 2.6 teeth decayed, filled or missing by the age of five, compared with a national average of 1.4.

Only 45 per cent of East Lancashire people are registered with an NHS dentist.

There are 159 dentists in 82 practices, and only a fraction are prepared to take on new patients. When a new dental practice opened in Rossendale last October, people queued for three hours to register.

And earlier this year, an application from East Lancashire PCTs for millions of pounds of extra funding was turned down by the Department of Health.

Blackburn with Darwen PCT spokeswoman Janet Ledward said: "We have a serious shortage of dentists offering NHS treatment and the PCT is using every opportunity to improve dental services."

She said current PCT initiatives had included helping an orthodontist to set up a practice in Blackburn and there were plans to increase dental services in new health centres such as the £11m development in Darwen.

East Lancashire's dental health consultant Dr Gary Whittle said the changes would help but not solve the overriding problem that not enough dentists were being trained nationally.

He said: "Giving PCTs control over the budget will help us should a dentist decide to go private. From 2005, the money would come back to the PCT and they will then have more flexibility to use that money to provide a solution working with local dentists.

"The biggest difficulty, however, is that there simply aren't enough dentists being trained and that's a government problem."