Remember the days when shops were open for the convenience only of the people who worked in them and providing an “out of hours” service was an alien concept? Any private sector firm that had not adapted its hours to suit its customers in recent years would have gone out of business. Some did. But the public sector is different. Its customers - taxpayers who pay for the services - have to take what they get. The National Health Service is going backwards in serving the needs of patients, certainly as far as family doctors are concerned.

This week the Department of Health will release the General Practice Workload Survey, the first for 15 years. It will show that GPs, who earn an average of more than £100,000 a year, are working 15% fewer hours than in John Major’s day. Most notably, as a result of an overgenerous contract with this government that gave GPs more than they could have dreamt of, few of them work evenings or weekends. GPs are the gatekeepers of the NHS. But even getting to the gate means, for most people, the inconvenience of taking time off work. Some 3.5m working days are lost each year because of this, according to the CBI, the business organisation.

The British Medical Association, on behalf of the NHS’s producer interests, says there is no demand for evening and weekend surgeries. It cites a health department survey showing that 84% of patients are happy with the current opening hours and warns that diverting GPs to evening and weekend appointments would hurt the neediest - those with long-term conditions and parents with young children. But most GP practices are big enough to offer daytime and “out of hours” appointments. Even if only a minority want them, which we doubt, why should they be ignored? Before taking over as prime minister Gordon Brown said he would take steps to provide evening, weekend and early morning surgeries. Since then he has fallen silent. He needs to take such steps now.