TWENTY five new dental workers are coming to East Lancashire as part of a recruitment drive to tackle decaying services.

Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) have drawn up an action plan to tackle the problem after the government announced it was devoting £368million to dental services across the country.

Initiatives to improve local dental health services across East Lancashire include:

Recruiting extra dentists to extend services for people who are not registered with a practice.

Bringing in new dentists to provide increased NHS dentistry.

The development of existing practices to improve access and increase the number of patients registered.

Encouraging dentists undertaking training in local practices to remain in the area.

East Lancashire is also in line to benefit from a Department of Health bid to recruit overseas dentists.

It is proposed that seven additional dentists would come to the region from abroad.

For the first time eight dental students from Liverpool University will come to East Lancashire on placement in the autumn.

Another move will see ten dental nurses begin training as dental therapists at the same time.

The acute shortage of dental services in East Lancashire was highlighted earlier this year when 1,500 people queued for hours in a Rossendale street to register at a new NHS practice.

The problems are so bad it is thought the new dentists and extra funding will not have an affect for at least two years.

Chief executive of Blackburn with Darwen PCT, Vivien Aspey, said: "Each PCT has drawn up an action plan to address the problems of poor access to dental health services in East Lancashire."

In Blackburn with Darwen, the PCT has received funding of £420,000 to provide an additional three salaried dentists to work with non-registered patients in local health centres.

Through similar funding in Hyndburn and Ribble Valley it is anticipated up to 6,000 residents will be able to continue to receive NHS dental care from three PCT employed dentists.

It is hoped these new dentists will be in post by October 1at a suitable location in Accrington Town Centre.