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.

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. 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.

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."

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."