Cuckoo Lane surgery in Hanwell, west London. Photograph: Frank Baron/Guardian
It doesn't take a genius to work out that health secretary Patricia Hewitt's call today for family doctors to open their surgeries during evenings and weekends is likely to go down well with patients, writes David Batty.
The current nine-to-five opening hours of most surgeries are hardly convenient for most working adults, but the problems many people face in seeing their GPs have been created in part by the government.
Many doctors have closed their Saturday morning surgeries since last year, when the government allowed them to opt out of providing out-of-hours cover. And the government's target that all patients should see a GP within 48 hours has led to people not being allowed to book appointments in advance, prompting complaints to Tony Blair from audience members on a BBC1 Question Time election special earlier this year.
The proposal to extend GP opening hours is part of a wider plan to reform community healthcare. Far more controversial is the move to force local health bodies, known as primary care trusts, to stop providing a wide range of series from district nursing to physiotherapy and hand them over to the private and voluntary sector.
However, the public seems unimpressed by ministers' latest scheme to extend "patient choice". As SocietyGuardian.co.uk revealed this week, only a tiny minority of people consulted over the plans believed creating a market in community healthcare should be a priority for the NHS. Meanwhile, doctors' leaders and NHS managers disagree as to whether the move could lead to wholesale privatisation.
* David Batty is SocietyGuardian.co.uk's social care reporter
