Labour and Tories clash over out-of-hours access to GPs

Almost 600 fewer GP surgeries are offering extended opening hours than they were in 2009, Labour has claimed.

Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham said coalition policies were forcing people into lines trailing out of their surgery doors and into accident and emergency departments.

Mr Burnham said the coalition had slashed funding from £3.01 per patient to £1.90 per patient, meaning by 2013/14 72 per cent of surgeries offered extended hours under the scheme, a reduction of 590.

The figures were sourced from a parliamentary question and are the newest available, Labour said.

But on Tuesday, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the Labour figures were “wrong”, pointing to the Prime Minister’s Challenge Fund.

Mr Hunt said this covered 1,100 practices and helped 7.5 million patients see GPs in the evenings and at weekends.