A new dental surgery could be in line for Westbury which has the lowest number of NHS places per person of any west Wiltshire town.

NHS Wiltshire confirmed Westbury, along with Warminster, could be in line for new dental practices following a £3.1m injection of cash from the South West Strategic Health Authority.

The news has been welcomed with “open arms” by health campaigners in Westbury, where just seven per cent of the population has an NHS place.

Brenda Jones, committee member of Westbury League of Friends, which is concerned with health issues in the town, said the group would welcome an NHS practice.

“Wouldn’t it be great if we could be top of the list instead of bottom all the time?" she said.

“We had the best hospital here but we were the first to close, so we would support this scheme wholeheartedly.”

There are two dental practices in Westbury - Hospital Road Dental Surgery and Atkins Dental Surgery in Haynes Road - which have very small NHS Dental contracts and are currently not accepting new NHS patients.

NHS Wiltshire is looking to increase dental activity in Westbury by 16,000 units of dental care, which is the standard measure of a piece of dental work in the NHS. A check-up and clean is one UDA, while a course of work which involves fillings might be three UDAs.

NHS Wiltshire hopes the extra funding will increase provision to an NHS dentist from the existing 43 per cent of the county’s 457,490 population to 52 per cent.

New dental practices are also earmarked for Tidworth, Amesbury and Malmesbury, while existing dentists in Calne, Chippenham, Devizes, Marlborough, Melksham, Pewsey, Trowbridge and Wootton Bassett will provide extra NHS provision through increased investment.

Wiltshire’s Director of Public Health, Maggie Rae, said: “This is excellent news for the people of Wiltshire. Last year the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment identified that we needed to improve access to NHS dentistry in Wiltshire, and this is our second year of additional investment.

“We have focused the need for areas of deprivation as well as where we know there is a shortfall in NHS provision, accessibility and where we see high numbers of military personnel. We will continue to ensure local people get better access to NHS dentistry throughout the county”.