PATIENTS of a dentist who were told they had to re-register for a limited number of NHS places caused angry scenes outside a surgery in a York community.

The practice, in St Giles Way, Copmanthorpe, had intended last Saturday to be a showcase for the recently extended facilities following a six-week refurbishment by new owners.

However, after receiving letters informing them the practice now only had 600 NHS spaces, many patients of Copmanthorpe Dental Centre, thought the open day was a chance to register for a place.

One patient, who asked not to be named, said: “We went on Saturday, early, and found a short queue of people being told that the 600 places had all been filled, and had been filled by well over a week by then, by people who had phoned in.

“By the time we left, there were probably 50 to 100 irate people queuing down the street who had also thought they were going to register or find out how to register as an NHS patient there. “There were lots of very angry people. I felt slightly sorry for the staff, but then the letter they sent was so utterly ambiguous, that they brought it on themselves.

“The worst bit is most of the previous patients there had been patients for 20-plus years like my family – so there is a lot of bad feeling that they’ve suddenly been kicked out of the practice.”

The new owner of the facility, dentist Kris Leeson, also owns surgeries in Bishopthorpe and Woodthorpe and has expanded the number of treatment rooms at Copmanthorpe from one to three.

He said he could not say how many NHS patients were previously registered at Copmanthorpe, but said he could only treat 600 NHS patients due to Government funding and was not just “dumping patients”.

He said: “We don’t have enough funding to keep all patients on with the National Health Service. So we wrote to all our patients telling them we could see 600 adults and all children.

“The first paragraph said we would like to welcome people to a new-look surgery and we are having an open day on July 31.”

The next paragraph detailed that due to a lack of funding the practice would only be able to see the first 600 patients to come forward.

Mr Leeson said: “We should have said that the open day was not the time to sign up – but that’s hindsight.

“It could have been done a bit better, but it would have still affected people.”