According to recent research, the Government’s plan to have GP practices open seven days a week could cost more than £1bn a year, even though GPs have only been promised a one-off payment of £150m for the scheme.

Research commissioned by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) has found that if just a quarter of practices were to open 12 hours a day, seven days a week, it could cost £749m, which would rise to £1.2bn if half of all practices were to operate under the same system.

A spokeswoman for the RCGP said that the funding gap between actual costs and what ministers have pledged would be enormous and while the funding currently on offer might go some way to plugging the gaps in existing services, it would not allow enough resources for surgeries in England to open between 8.00 and 8.00, seven days a week for fully routine care.

The Government has pledged to provide evening and weekend services for every patient in England by 2020, although ministers have made clear that not every practice will have to open seven days. However, NHS England has so far refused to release details of its estimated costs of introducing such a service.

The RCGP maintains that rather than bulldoze the seven-day plan through, the Government should focus on developing the work that is already taking place under the 10-point plan for GP workforce that it worked up with the RCGP and the British Medical Association (BMA) earlier this year.

Another barrier to seven-day working is a lack of GPs, with one commentator saying that practices are struggling to fill shifts both in the extended hours and the regular working week. This situation might worsen as, medical recruiters are using the threat of seven-day working to tempt doctors abroad.