PLANS to open the borough's new ground-breaking centre for sick people this month have been put back.

The walk-in centre, which will allow people to get medical advice from GPs and nurses without an appointment, was expected to open this month. But delays with recruiting staff and altering the new building on Parsons Lane in Bury have meant that the new centre will open at the end of June.

The walk-in centre will be housed in a building on Parsons Lane owned by Bury Health Care NHS Trust who are responsible for running local hospitals.

Hospital managers had originally put the building, formerly used as a health and promotions unit, up for sale but agreed to lease it to GPs behind the initiative. The building, however, stills needs alterations, including the installation of lifts and a gas supply, before it is opened to the public.

The new centre, only one of four in the region, will be managed by BARDOC, the out-of-hours GP service, who will also be situated in the same building. BARDOC led the successful bid for the centre which will receive a share of the £15.5 m invested by the Government into 36 centres nationwide.

Dr Derek Fletcher, BARDOC chairman, said: "I do not feel like we are behind schedule. There has been an inevitable slippage from the organisation point of view but we have put in an enormous amount of work and building is looking very well."

Dr Fletcher stressed that finding the right calibre staff for a new project was crucial.

"We need to have the right staff in place and with this being a new area we need to find someone with the right experience."

He added: "It would be worse to open the centre when it was not ready. It is a new project and we want to get it just right."

BARDOC is expected to move into the new building on May 8 and the walk-in centre is due to open at the end of June.