By Nick Bostock

PCTs that want practices to extend opening hours without paying them for the extra work have been condemned by GPs.

Under a scheme being rolled out across seven PCTs in the North East London SHA, practices will be offered cask to cover additional staff costs to enable them to open from 8am to 8pm for six or seven days a week for up to nine months.

PCTs will fund up to eight additional two-and-a-half-hour GP sessions per week, at a rate of £65 per hour.

But after nine months, the SHA expects the extra hours to 'pay for themselves' as practices attract more patients and boost global sum pay.

Andrew McDonald, assistant director of primary care contracts for the SHA, said: 'Ultimately we want all practices in north-east London open when it is convenient to patients.'

He said not all practices would be expected to open until 8pm, but 'a substantial minority' would extend hours on some days.

GPC negotiator Dr Peter Holden said that GPs who take part in the scheme would be 'cutting their own throats'.

If practices took on more patients, extra global sum pay would cover treating them in normal hours but would not be enough to pay for staff to work longer, he said.

'The global sum is for 52 hours a week. If you're working 60 hours, you should get 60 hours' money,' Dr Holden said.

He added that GPs could reasonably expect out-of-hours rates if they worked late. North East London SHA has started to roll out the scheme.

Two practices in Waltham forest are offering extended hours between 8am and 7pm on weekdays but are not being paid for them now that their year-long pilot is over. A pilot practice in Redbridge is opening between 8am and 8pm seven days a week and is being paid.

In Tower Hamlets PCT, 10 further practices have extended opening hours for £120 per hour.

Grange Park Medical Practice, also in North East London SHA, had planned to open longer but has ruled it out because there is no extra pay.

GPs at the Yalding Surgery in Kent, who extended their hours without extra funds, said they needed extra funds to continue.

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