Hundreds of people have queued over the past three days

Earlier this week, Richard Wilson and Partners announced their Carlisle and Penrith premises would stop NHS treatment for adults in February.

It has led to hundreds of people queuing outside the surgeries over the past three days to register.

On Friday, North Cumbria Primary Care Trusts announced Liz Mather's dental practice, in Carlisle, is also to stop providing NHS dental care for adults.

Ms Mather's Warwick Road practice has about 4,000 patients.

The trust said patients will not need to queue but a registration line will open next Wednesday, once patients have received a letter from the practice.

The trust said it had held discussions with the practice and was disappointed at the decision.

Mr Wilson said the past few days had been very upsetting

Mr Wilson's decision to opt out of NHS work will see his 17,000 patient list halved.

People have been queuing to stay with his practices because there is a shortage of both NHS and private dentists in North Cumbria.

Mr Wilson said uncertainty over a new NHS contract, which is being introduced in April, was one of the reasons for the decision. He had also faced problems recruiting within the NHS.

He believes the move will mean better care for patients .

"The last three days have been very upsetting for everyone," he said.

"I am amazed that the people in the queues outside have been absolutely fantastic.

"They understand why we are having to make this decision."

Overseas recruitment

North Cumbria Primary Care Trusts said it was disappointed at the decision. But director of commissioning Michael Smillie said he did not think it would turn into a flood of practices leaving the NHS and he was confident they would be able to recruit enough dentists.

He said: "We have had a number of contacts this week from dentists wanting to work in North Cumbria, and also overseas.

"We are recruiting overseas both in Poland and in Spain and over parts of the world."

He said one of the reasons for the recruitment problems was that Cumbria was not particularly close to any dental schools and trainees often liked to practise near where they trained.

Another reason, he said, was Cumbria is a very rural area and often young people preferred to live in urban areas. He said there was also the issue of dentists' partners finding jobs.