Delegates at the annual British Medical Association (BMA) local medical committees conference rejected calls to abandon pay negotiations through the Doctors and Dentists Review Body (DDRB) but ruled against a return to direct pay negotiations, contracts and conditions with the NHS.

The DDRB is an independent body that makes annual recommendations on employed doctors’ pay, based on evidence submitted by the health departments, NHS Employers and the BMA. However, the Government has chosen not to ask the DDRB for a recommendation for employed doctors in England in 2015-2016.

Delegates were also told by the Chair of the BMA’s GP committee that the Government must halt its obsession for practices to open seven days a week when there are not the GPs in place to cope with current demand.

He argued that no other country is attempting such a plan and that the NHS is pressing ahead with “fewer GPs per head than in Europe, while spending less on health compared to virtually all other comparable nations”. He added that there are 40 million more GP appointments annually than five years ago, yet the proportion of NHS funds spent in general practice is falling.

However, a Department of Health spokesperson said that thousands of GPs across the country are already offering patients GP access seven days a week, adding that a third of the country will be covered by next March.

According to the GP committee, general practice is key to plans to shift more care out of hospitals into the community but it fears that practices are being used as the “backstop for every problem in the NHS and beyond”.

The committee also called for a “complete overhaul” of the non-emergency NHS111 phoneline service, as it “clogs up appointments” and referred five million more patients to general practice rather than helping them to care for their conditions at home.