HEALTH experts in Oxfordshire are not convinced by Government plans for the world’s “first country to deliver a truly seven-day NHS”.

In his first major speech since the election, Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday pledged to plough £8bn into the health service to extend hours.

He explained how his proposal would involve “different shift patterns”, not NHS staff working seven days a week.

But some health experts, including Dr Matthew Cheetham, a GP at Summertown Health Centre in Banbury Road, said the proposal would not work. He added: “I do not know who is going to staff it to cover the extra hours – the Government wants an extra 5,000 general practitioners before the next election.

“It takes 10 years to train a general practitioner and one-in-10 positions are vacant at the moment.

“The idea of Saturday and Sunday work is fine but I can not work any harder, so instead it will be a day off in the week, which just moves the problem to another day.

“Plenty of patients really value continuity of care by seeing the same doctor – this has been blindly thought through.”

In his pledge, Witney MP Mr Cameron said a five-year funding plan was in place to tackle recruitment problems and that there was “a strong track record from the last five years”, giving him confidence that the plan would work.

Dr Mark Porter, British Medical Association council chairman, dubbed the idea “empty headline grabbing” and said: “What remains less clear is how the Government intends to translate this announcement into reality.

“Crucially, the £8bn promised by the Prime Minister is the bare minimum needed for the NHS to simply stand still and will not pay for extra services.

“There is a chronic shortage of GPs and hospital doctors.”

Rachel Coney, chief executive of Healthwatch Oxfordshire said: “We believe that the aim of a seven-day health service is great, but without significant extra cash or radical redesign of services, we do not see how it can happen.”

Dr Merlin Dunlop, of Donnington Health Centre in Oxford, said: “Five thousand to eight thousand is not achievable with the current recruitment figures. I have not heard any good ideas on how they are going to improve.”