SIR - Six new dental surgeries are to open in Worcester to help alleviate the crisis for 35,000 patients left without NHS care.

According to Paul Bates of Worcester Primary Care Trust and Mike Foster, treatment will be offered to only 10,000, so 25,000 will still be denied NHS dentistry despite the promise of Mr Blair that it would be available to all.

The contract for these six surgeries is for the sum of £600,000 but as the new dental contract pays per patient, not as previously for work carried out, this gives a sum of £60 per patient to last, I presume, for one financial year.

I would be interested to learn from Mr Bates or Mr Foster how much crown, bridge or prosthetic work can be carried out for this sum, or will only a selected few of the 10,000 be eligible for such treatment?

THOMAS LOUGHER,