A PERSHORE dentist has been left counting the cost of a legal battle with health bosses after a bitter rent dispute.

Richard Burgess has been ordered to pay more than £15,000 in outstanding rent on his practice.

Mr Burgess had issued a counter-claim for a grant of up to £100,000 which he thought Worcestershire Health Authority would provide for setting up his practice.

This led to a rent deadlock after he refused to pay three years' rent on his practice, which is in the Abbey Road health centre.

Mr Burgess claimed he was led to believe that funding would arrive after he attracted a second dentist, Simon Ford, to the practice.

He said the financial dispute led to mounting stress and he has been on sick leave since March last year.

"I'd put a lot of effort into providing a health service facility which was desperately needed in Pershore when the major bodies could do nothing about it," said Mr Burgess after last week's judgement at the County Court in Worcester.

"I attracted another dentist when they couldn't provide NHS dental treatment."

"Nobody would have dreamed of setting up an NHS practice without the grant.

"Once I had set up the practice, they were happy to fob me off," Mr Burgess claimed.

"I have to put it down to experience.

"Morally, I'm right, there is no doubt about that."

Community trust corporate services director Robert Hipwell declined to comment in detail on the case.

"We're pleased the judgement was made in favour of the trust. This was about monies that were due to the trust," he added.

Mr Burgess, of Cambria Road, Evesham, opened his practice in April 1997, a move which helped solve a dental crisis in Pershore in which NHS patients were being de-registered.

It attracted and treats around 3,000 patients.