The new GP contract will include a seven day access requirement for patients of both practices and hospitals, according to Prime Minister David Cameron, who was speaking on the Andrew Marr Show at the weekend.

Mr Cameron announced details of a new voluntary contract for GPs to deliver seven day care for all patients by 2020. He also unveiled proposals to deliver seven day hospital services across half the country by 2018.

On the show, the Prime Minister said that the Government will be publishing a new GP contract to get rid of the “box-ticking and the form filling”, saying that he doesn’t think anyone is happy with the GP contract, so the new contract will focus on making sure that people in the UK can get access to a GP on a seven day a week basis, from 8am to 8pm.

He added that the new contract will remove the bureaucratic box-ticking of the 2004 GP contract, thereby freeing up time for GPs to provide the quality of care that they and their patients want. Micro-management of GPs’ work through the Quality and Outcomes Framework and other sorts of old-fashioned bureaucracy will also be scrapped, giving doctors far greater professional control.

Meanwhile, NHS England Chief Executive Simon Stevens also issued a statement saying that the body is developing a new voluntary contract for practices to expand and provide primary and secondary care by April 2017.

Mr Stevens announced that the new voluntary GP contract will be developed to enable practices to work in bigger groups and follow the lead of some of the vanguard projects around the country that are piloting a wider range of secondary care and community services.