A Conservative think-tank suggestion that the number of times patients can visit their family doctor in a year could be limited has been condemned as "absolute madness" in the West Country.
The idea of a limit to appointments appears in a Local Health Discussion Brief posted on the Conservative Policy Forum website for consideration by Tory Party activists. The forum is chaired by Cabinet Office Minister and West Dorset MP Oliver Letwin.
Ros Kayes, a cognitive behavioural therapist based in a GPs' surgery and living in Bridport, Mr Letwin's constituency, condemned the idea.
She said: "You can't ration health care in this way. It is totally contrary to the ethos under which the NHS was set up. I have professional awareness of the way GPs' appointments work. About 60 per cent of patients very rarely see their doctor and people who do go regularly have conditions which make it important that they do so. They may be going through mental and or physical problems. Someone with long term anxiety or depression, for example, needs regular reviews of their medication. If primary health care is meddled with in this way it could bring the whole house down. It would put even more pressure on accident and emergency departments.
"It makes me wonder whether it is the first step towards privatisation. What is it saying, that you would pay for more visits?"
Among other options in the Discussion Brief, activists are asked whether GPs should take greater responsibility for out-of-hours care in their area – something Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt addressed earlier this week – and if seeing a GP for a routine appointment in the evening or at the weekend is a luxury the country cannot afford.
Other health experts also reacted angrily to the suggestions, according to the Independent on Sunday.
Dr Clare Gerada, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: "This was obviously written by someone who has never been unwell or has never met people who work in the health service."
Labour health spokesman Jamie Reed said: "This paper, hidden away on their website, reveals the Tories' true agenda for the NHS. After throwing the NHS open to ever more privatisation with a wasteful and damaging reorganisation, it seems the Tories want to go even further. It's shocking that they are considering limiting the number of times patients can see their GP – changing the fundamental principle in the NHS constitution that access to the NHS is based on clinical need.
"The Tories have already wasted £3 billion on a top-down reorganisation of the NHS and overseen a crisis in A&E – now they are consulting their members on opening up the NHS to even more competition, and making it harder for patients to see GPs in the evenings and at weekends."
A Conservative Party spokesman said: "This was simply a topic to provoke discussion and isn't Conservative Party policy."
It comes as Government plans are to be unveiled that mean half of all medical students will be expected to become general practitioners.
Independent training organisation Health Education England will be told to meet the 50 per cent target by March 2015.
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