GPs in Bournemouth have come under fire from senior politicians for setting up a private practice alongside their NHS clinic.

The Dorset Private GP service opened last month at the town’s Poole Road Medical Centre.

The GPs say they are offering patients a chance of an extended consultation with a doctor. Patients can pay £145 for a 40-minute consultation and £80 for a 20-minute consultation.

But Labour shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “This looks like the thin end of the wedge. There are really worrying signs that a two-tier NHS is emerging under Theresa May’s leadership.

“The relentless underfunding of healthcare has meant that practitioners in many parts of the country are struggling to keep the service going, but the news that private patients are being offered the chance to skip the queue comes as a real shock.”

Today the website of the Private GP service was not functioning – but a Facebook page remained active.

Earlier this week GP Dr Tim Alder told a local paper: “I’d love to be able to say ‘you can have 20 minutes with me on the NHS’, but that is not going to happen until we have twice as many GPs. We certainly won’t be using NHS resources, we’ll use ours, which means if we do this in NHS time, we’ll find cover for that.”

Last year English GPs stepped away from mass resignation from the NHS – but GPs in Northern Ireland are on the brink of taking this step.

Dr Alder indicated that the creation of success private practices could lead to more GPs quitting the NHS to run similar ventures.

He said: “Sadly the NHS is no longer prioritising [quality general practice] and we can see a time when traditional GPs are private and the majority of patients are instead seen in clinics based in hospitals like minor A&E departments. The personal touch and the ‘whole patient’ knowledge will be lost.”