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David Cameron: ''This is about getting services right''
David Cameron says he wants to offer more patients the chance to visit a GP in the evening or at weekends.
Under a scheme to be piloted in nine areas of England, surgeries will be able to bid for funding to open from 8am to 8pm seven days a week.
The prime minister said the £50m project would mean doctors "fit in with work and family life".
Mr Cameron has also denied his plan for a budget surplus in the next Parliament will lead to further spending cuts.
The prime minister said the 2008 banking crisis had brought the UK economy "to the brink" and it would be irresponsible not to put money aside for a "rainy day" when the economy improved.
In other developments on the penultimate day of the Conservative Party's annual conference in Manchester:
- Mr Cameron said he would welcome Mayor of London Boris Johnson back to Parliament and says they could make a "strong team"
- The proposed marriage tax break is "very much a first step" to recognising the institution in the tax system, Mr Cameron said
- The prime minister said he "understood" Ed Miliband's reaction to an article in the Daily Mail about his father and newspapers and politicians should show "judgement" about press limits
- Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith outlined plans to force the jobless to attend 9-5 classes at job centres
- Culture Secretary Maria Miller says a new £10m fund will be set up to mark UK historic events, such as forthcoming anniversaries of the Magna Carta and the Battle of Waterloo
Manchester is already piloting an extended-hours scheme for GPs, with GPs grouping together to offer extra care, in what is being billed as an attempt to prevent "unnecessary" visits to hospital A&E wards.
'Skype appointments'The wider scheme will see practices applying for a share of a £50m "Challenge Fund", with surgeries becoming "pioneers" in each of nine regions, starting in 2014/15.
Extended opening hours for GPs. Sounds familiar? It should.
The Labour government encouraged practices to open later in the evening and on weekends - offering them extra money if they did so.
Most GPs gave it a go. But the problem was that in many places there was just not the demand and so the funding was reduced and hours cut.
There are still plenty of surgeries that offer out-of-hours appointments, particularly in large urban areas.
But the truth is that the people who are most likely to make use of the service - those of working age - are the least likely to need a GP.
Whereas, the elderly and children who are the most frequent users tend not to have a problem attending appointments during regular hours.
Mr Cameron is also promising more "flexible access", including email, Skype and telephone consultations for patients who prefer this to face-to-face contact.
He told the BBC: "Many hard working people find it difficult to take time off to get that GP appointment, so having these pilot schemes... is, I think, a very positive step forward.
"It also links to the problems we have seen in our accident and emergency departments because the number of people going to A&E departments is up by four million since the changes to the GP contract that Labour put in in 2004.
"What we need to do is enable the right people with the right ailments, as it were, to either go to a GP or to accident and emergency."
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: "We live in a 24/7 society, and we need GPs to find new ways of working so they can offer appointments at times that suit hard-working people.
"Cutting-edge GP practices here in Manchester are leading the way, and we want many more patients across the country to benefit."
'Social care collapse'The Royal College of GPs said doctors were keen to do more, but were already struggling with their workload.
Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said: "Under the Tories, hundreds of GP surgeries are shutting their doors earlier after David Cameron scrapped Labour's successful extended opening scheme.
"Patients are also finding it harder to get appointments, and turning to A&E instead, after he removed Labour's guarantee of an appointment within 48 hours."
He added: "So I sincerely hope Jeremy Hunt isn't expecting applause on GP hours, given how they have taken the NHS backwards from the position they inherited from Labour. An apology for the inconvenience they have caused to millions would be more appropriate.
"I also hope he won't claim that this will solve David Cameron's A&E crisis. It is the collapse of social care that is driving vulnerable, older people into hospital in ever greater numbers and this is the crisis they continue to neglect."
'No splurge'In his speech to the conference on Monday, Chancellor George Osborne said he planned to continue the government's policy of fiscal restraint throughout the next parliament - if the Conservatives are re-elected - with the aim of achieving a budget surplus.
Mr Cameron said this would require tough decisions for the next six or seven years but did not "necessarily mean" there would have to be more cuts on top of those announced up to 2016.
"What it definitely means once those years are over you cannot sort of plan another spending splurge. We are going to have to be responsible in our country for very many, many years into the future."
The government was right to focus on containing spending, he added.
"I don't think you tax your way to a strong recovery and we need to recognise that hard working people need more money in their pockets to spend as they choose."
The prime minister also insisted that the government would find the money to freeze fuel duty until 2015, describing help for motorists as a "real priority".
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