GP leaders reacted strongly yesterday as Theresa May insisted that weekend opening of practices would help solve the problems of the NHS.

Yesterday she told a regional newspaper group that she wanted practices open seven days a week, 12 hours a day.

It came after earlier in the year she seemed to blame practices closing at weekends for the growing pressure on hospitals.

Yesterday the chair of the British Medical Association’s GP committee Dr Chaand Nagpaul wrote to all GPs, speaking of his “shock and dismay” at the “scapegoating” of the profession.

Government sources were quoted seeking to downplay Mrs May’s comments, reported yesterday in newspapers in East Anglia. They said that no practice would be forced to open at weekends.

Mrs May had said she wanted all practices open at weekends, 12 hours a day.

But an academic study, published yesterday, found little evidence to back extended weekend opening of practices.

In his letter, Dr Nagpaul says: “I have spoken to NHS England and the Department of Health and, contrary to the headlines, there will be no obligation on individual GP practices to be open for seven days, or beyond their current contractual hours.

“The GP Forward View proposals for extended access via locality hubs still applies as before, which also allows for local commissioning flexibility relating to appointments on Saturdays and Sundays based on demand.

“Finally, the glaring omission from the Government was, of course, the basic courtesy of a thank you – to recognise the extraordinary efforts of GPs and their staff, working against all odds to look after more than one million patients daily.”

A study of extended GP opening from the Midlands, reported yesterday concluded that seven-day access is “not the answer” to improving patient care.

The Nottingham University researchers studied pilot projects in Nottinghamshire and in Southern Derbyshire.

They found that patients had no strong preference for seven-day opening – but had a strong desire to get same-day appointments.

Just 22% of urgent appointments offered at weekends were used – falling to 18% on Sundays in a project that offered urgent care appointments only.

But when practices offered planned and urgent appointments at weekends, some 82% of slots were used.

Researcher Paul Windrum said: “The biggest users of primary care GP services are the elderly and the very young. These groups do not have problems accessing services during the working week.

“The expectation seems to be that people in full-time employment have a strong demand for weekend services, but the evidence indicates this is not the case.”

Fellow researcher Penelope Siebert said: “The misconception that the solution to improving patient care is to open GP practices seven-days a week – is simply not true and this can be seen by looking at the take-up of weekend appointments during the pilot schemes.”