A dentist who is quitting the National Health Service tomorrow after 28 years has blamed the Government's new pay contracts.

Dr Michael Austin says changes to dental payments which come into effect on April 1 will leave thousands of adults in Sussex unable to find an NHS dentist.

Dr Austin, who is closing his practice in St Peter's Place, Brighton, and relocating to a new surgery in Shirley Drive, Hove, is one of dozens of dentists in the county dropping NHS patients from their books from midnight tomorrow.

He said: "Every NHS patient in the UK will be automatically deregistered by their dentist tonight following Government changes to the dental care system.

"From Monday we will start seeing great queues outside dental practices of people wanting NHS treatment but not being able to get it. The days of NHS dentistry for all are numbered after tomorrow."

Dr Austin, 59, has turned down the new pay contract offered to all NHS dentists and will no longer treat the 200 payment-exempt adults currently on his books. He said: "I will continue to treat all the children at Shirley Drive but under the contracts it will be uneconomical to continue with the adults.

"It would mean the same amount of work for less money.

"The contract dictates that you have to carry out a certain amount of units of NHS work to get paid the money but anything over and above that would be paid from dentists' pockets."

Tony Blair promised the nation that everyone would be able to see an NHS dentist in two years when he came to power in 1997.

Dr Austin added: "My opinion is that the Government's intention is to eventually restrict NHS dentistry to just children and those exempt from paying; ie people on benefits.

"And for them it will be only a core service - doing fillings, pain relief and emergency treatment."

Dr Austin said NHS dentistry has been in decline for years due to a gradual reduction of funding.

He added: "It's the money but more than that it's the bureaucracy, with endless bits of paper and form filling. The NHS has become an environment which is increasingly troublesome and problematic for dentists to work in.

"We are practising 21st Century dentistry but we have an NHS stuck in the 20th Century.

"It will no longer be possible to deliver a premier service to NHS patients because funding will be capped.

"There is nothing in the contracts about service and quality and we can't put our name to that."

The Government says the system will offer patients more choice because they are no longer tied to just one dentist.

By Dr Austin said: "The opposite is true. They will have no choice because they will not be able to find anyone to treat them."

He is offering his NHS patients private dental insurance through Denplan at £11.88 per month.

The Argus revealed last week that dozens of Sussex dentists are rejecting the new contracts and dumping NHS patients.