PATIENTS at a NHS dentist in Worcester have expressed their shock after it was announced it would be closing next month.

Patients contacted the Worcester News after hearing the rumours about St John's Dental Practice, with the closure confirmed on the practice's website.

A statement on the website says: "Dental health care services at St John's Dental Practice will no longer be provided from May 27, as the contract comes to an end and the practice will close.

"We know that patients may be upset by the closure and we are very sorry for any disruption this may cause.

"We’d like to reassure patients that the practice isn’t closing because of any quality issues. The practice is closing because the contract will end on that date."

It is not known how many staff the dentist employees, but the statement added: "Provisions are in place to ensure that staff are appropriately advised in respect of their employment rights."

The announcement has disappointed many of the practice's patients, who have now been left looking for a new dentist.

Kerry Powell, a Dines Green resident, said she had heard a rumour that the lease was also up at the Malvern Road-based site, which led to its closure.

"I am very upset, and in shock," she said.

"My last dentist in Dines Green was closed and moved to St Johns.

"I have managed to find a new dentist, as I can drive, but I feel sorry for children, students, elderly people who were patients."

Gwendoline Hughes, a Ronkswood resident, said: "My husband has been there this week, and they've told him it's closing.

"The dentist helped me out a lot when another surgery left my teeth in a state. They fixed them and stopped me having to pay.

"I regularly go. I consider the dentists there friends.

"The staff are lovely and I don't want to see it go. I've been going there for many years now."

Worcester MP Robin Walker said constituents had raised the closure with him, and he said he contacted NHS England to make sure there was NHS provision in the west of the city.

"My job is to ensure there is NHS provision for constituents, something we have always been quite good with in Worcester.

"I was told by NHS England that they were talking to two dentists in the area, Bull Ring Practice and Oasis Practise, to look at them providing more spaces for NHS patients."