PLANS to open a new borough-wide dental access centre are proving to be a real tooth ache for health bosses who were told to "trim down" their bid by government officials.

Bury and Rochdale Health Authority was told by Department of Health that it had to cut down its bid and reduce costs to under £2 million.

The dental access centre was given the go-ahead, in principle, by Health Minister Lord Hunt earlier this year.

But when health bosses went to hand in their business case providing full details of the proposal for two new centres in Bury and Rochdale, they were they would have to revise their plans.

Now health officials have come up with a £1.997 million bid for three years after replacing weekday evening emergency dental service sessions with an on-call dentist who will cover both Bury and Rochdale.

Health bosses have also reduced the number of dentists at the Rochdale centre from three to two. At the latest health authority meeting Mr Phil Emmott, health authority director of operational services, said the situation looked optimistic.

"Some authorities were told to cut back and get rid of services whereas we were only told to trim down. We only had 48 hours to revise our bid and we are optimistic that it will be approved in May."

If the plans are given the go-ahead next month the new centre will be open in October as originally planned. But Mr Emmott warned: "The time scale is very tight."