A LETTER sent out to dental patients informing them their practice is to turn private is the subject of a PCT investigation.

The organisation began looking into the contents of the letter, posted to patients of the Family Dental Healthcare, after receiving a number of complaints.

In the letter, the Groundwell Road surgery said the dental service will now only provide private treatment to patients and people have 10 days to arrange a new appointment.

It goes on to state that if patients had not contacted the surgery by last Friday and pay a private registration fee, the practice will assume the patient no longer wants to remain at the surgery – and will cancel all appointments.

One patient of the surgery who has been registered for more than 10 years said many patients who cannot afford private dental care would be left in limbo.

The pensioner said: “We were completely mystified with this letter which came completely out of the blue.

“There are members of my family who are in the middle of treatment which will not be complete within 10 days so we read this letter and are left wondering what is going to happen to us?

“We have been with this service for many years, so I was angry when I received a letter saying we could no longer seek help there.

“The location was taken over a couple of years ago from the former owner.

“I think the letter is brusque but mostly I think the whole thing is rubbish to be perfectly honest.”

However one of the two dentists at the surgery, who refused to give his name, said the service will only be partially privatised and certain patients can remain – but that will be based on a ‘first come first serve basis’.

The man who identified himself as the owner of the surgery – which is owned by Ajesh Rajin Sharma – said: “There is not enough funding, therefore it is forcing us to go private.

“This is something that the PCT has forced us to do. They have left us with no option.”

He then added that the sooner people called, the better chance they would have of staying with the practice.

However there is no mention of this in the letter seen by the Adver.

Kirsty Brain, a spokeswoman for the PCT, said: “We are looking into the letter sent out to patients.

“We have received a number of concerned phone calls from the patients.

“We are talking to the dentist involved to understand further why the letters was sent out.”