IS THIS what it has come to? That was the cry from 200 people as they queued for 100 places that were opened up on the books of the only NHS dentist accepting new patients in Fareham and Gosport.

For one morning only the doors of the Whiteley Dental Surgery were open to new patients after being inundated with requests.

From 6am on Saturday they started to queue. By the time the doors opened at 9.30am the line of people stretched around the Solent Business Park surgery.

People had come from as far a field as Gosport and Southampton and braved the miserable weather to queue.

Among them was 78-year-old Pamela Hollick from Locks Heath, who queued for an hour-and-a-half to get a place. She said: "It is a sorry state of affairs when it comes to this - people clamouring for a small number of spaces. But what else can you do? My dentist went private so it was a case of having to find somewhere else."

Owner of the surgery Ian Capewell said they had no other choice but to release the spaces in one go. He said: "My staff just were not able to deal with the number of inquiries during work hours so we decided to open today on a first come, first served basis for people to take up the spaces and then go on a waiting list.

"We were expecting a lot of people, such is the demand for NHS dentists in this area, but we were amazed when we heard they had started arriving a 6am. One guy even had a stool to sit on."

Mr Capewell said he had enquired about opening another practice in Whiteley when a long-awaited doctor's surgery eventually gets off the drawing board, but had been turned down.

"You can see from today what demand is like. I would have no problem finding patients for another surgery but the powers-that-be said no - there just wasn't the funding," he said.

The news was condemned by Fareham MP Mark Hoban, who has been campaigning for better NHS provision, raising it several times in the House of Commons. He said: "The whole situation across Fareham and Whiteley is unbearable, particularly for the more dependent groups of the community."