Patients have been turned away from a brand new NHS dental practice just days after opening - because it has already run out of space.
Hundreds lined up outside Saint Pauls Dental Practice in Bristol on Monday and Tuesday hoping to secure an appointment.
Among those in the crowd were elderly and disabled people who had gathered as early as 5am.
Today, a sign on the door read: "We are not enrolling anymore patients."
Patients have been turned away from a brand new NHS dental practice just days after opening - because it has already run out of space
PA
Pictures showing the extent of queues have been described as being "reminiscent of Soviet-era Eastern Europe".
The notice added: "We are now only seeing the patients who have been booked an appointment.
"Please do not queue up. We will only let in patients who can confirm their name and appointment time for today."
Patients have been left upset and angry over the "shocking" queuing system outside Saint Pauls Dental Practice.
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One resident told GB News: "There was long queue and I'm an old man, I can't stand for long so I thought later they are opening every day of the week until Friday, it might slow down a bit then I can have a chance.
"So this afternoon I was here there was nobody there, I thought oh here is a chance you know I just walk here and they said they have taken the people that they need and that's it.
"It's terrible really, it's shocking. We fought for this, we I live down the bottom here and my family.
"I took part when we were fighting to have a dentist there and now look because of this, I couldn't stand in the queue, that's it. They wouldn't take anybody. Now that's the that's shame really."
Hundreds lined up outside Saint Pauls Dental Practice in Bristol on Monday and Tuesday
PA
More than 1,300 people are believed to have been registered at Saint Pauls Dental Practice since it opened on Monday morning.
Despite the note on its door, the practice told MailOnline it did have space to register more patients.
Practice coordinator Shivani Bhandari said: "We didn’t expect queues like we’ve seen over the last two days.
"We feel bad about it, we don’t want people to queue up, it’s not the way.
"We had some people coming in trying to register themselves and 12 members of their family, their mother-in-law, father-in-law, all sorts of relatives. We had to stop that."
She added: "But we have more places and we want to be able to treat everyone in this community on the NHS."
