A STATE-OF-THE-ART dental practice is sitting empty because a health board cannot find the staff to work there.
Three attempts to fill the posts at the £2 million Cove Bay Health Centre in Aberdeen have all failed.
Now NHS Grampian bosses said they must "take stock" and find the best way of recruiting the two dentists they need for the centre, which opened
its doors on 21 May.
The British Dental Association said the shortfall was partly due to the lack of a training college in the area. But local politicians have highlighted rocketing property prices and the fact many dentists are unwilling to work in what is perceived as a "rural" and far-flung area.
An NHS spokesman said £95,000 had been spent on kitting out the dental part of the centre, which is currently occupied only by GPs.
The spokesman added NHS Grampian was confident it would be able to staff the unit, pointing out that in the past five years it had managed to set up 18 NHS dental surgeries. He also said that with the establishing of the new Aberdeen Dental Institute it was hoped that a further 29 practices would be created in the future.
He said of the current situation: "We had four applicants from overseas but none of them had the necessary qualifications to work in the UK, so none of them was even suitable for interview. We need to take stock about where we go from here, whether we need to advertise or recruit internally.
"We're not surprised that we are experiencing this problem. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to recruit dentists in Scotland at the moment, particularly in rural areas."
Aberdeen Council leader, Katharine Dean, said: "There is a crying need for NHS dentists in Aberdeen."
Mrs Dean acknowledged that there was an issue about attracting dentists to the region, but claimed this was due to a misperception. She said house prices were a pressing problem, with Aberdeen recording an annual rise of 25 per cent last month, the highest in Scotland, compared with 12 per cent in Edinburgh.
"There is a shortage of affordable housing in Aberdeen, but this will be alleviated once we've had approval for the local structural plan," she said.
"Hopefully, even if it won't lower prices, it will help slow the rise."
One Aberdeen family said yesterday that they had been on the NHS waiting list for two years.
Mother-of-two Sue Porter, 50, decided to register privately after moving from Surrey in 2005.
Her daughters Steph, 16, and Sammy, 13, also went private but joiner husband Steve Kirk, 48, is refusing to pay for private treatment and goes without. He said: "They have spent all that money building the health centre but if they can't get anyone to staff it then what's the point in building it in the first place?"
