The owner of a Penrith dental surgery has discussed appointments in the county following the news of surgeries extending their opening hours.

NHS dental patients are to be offered care over weekends and into the night as dentists try to tackle the backlog of care built up by the pandemic, officials have said.

More than 350,000 additional dentist appointments are to be made available to patients in England over the coming months, the NHS said.

NHS dental services across the country are to be awarded a share of £50 million to help services recover to pre-pandemic levels.

It said that dentists involved in the scheme will be paid more than a third on top of their normal sessional fee for delivering care outside of core hours, such as early morning and weekend work.

Chief dental officer for England Sara Hurley said: "Dental services are a vital part of the NHS providing oral health care to all age groups and that's why we have taken this unprecedented action to boost NHS dental services.”

John Lewis, who is the owner of Ghyllmount Dental Practice has warned that such appointments will not be seen in Cumbria, however.

He said: “Around 350 million appointments were lost during the pandemic and it’s going to take another two years before dental surgeries see a more routine operation.

“We are suffering from a massive recruitment problem in Cumbria. Nurses have not wanted to renew their contracts as they were forced to work prolonged shifts during the pandemic whilst wearing PPE equipment. The long hours led to dental nurses feeling burnt out and in turn resulted in many of them choosing not to renew their contracts.

“As we are getting no interest in people willing to apply for contracts, it will result in dental surgeries being unable to meet demand as we cannot commit staff to extended shifts.

“We know what patients want but they have to expect disappointment as we won’t be able to meet expectations. It is a shame as we see people getting to enjoy going back to pubs and restaurants whereas nothing is being done to help healthcare companies across the country.”