GP surgeries will be split into four clusters with one leading practice in each to open weekends as part of a service overhaul to improve patient care.

Plans have been revealed for how the £2.95m cash pot from the Prime Minister’s Challenge Fund will be carved up to improve access to primary care in Slough.

It includes putting the borough’s 16 practices into four clusters, with one hub centre to head each group and open from 6.30-8pm on weekdays and for eight hours on Saturday and Sunday.

It means GPs can offer 48,000 more appointments in the 12-month trial – around 15% more appointments. It works out as an extra 7.3 GPs to cover the extra appointments.

A report due to be discussed at next week’s Slough Borough Council Health Scrutiny Panel meeting read: “People say that when we have reached our ambition, things will also be very different in the community. An important change that we will have made is that people have learnt how to use the NHS – and when to use other community services to keep well and live life to the full.” GPs from other practices will be based at the hub surgery on a rota basis and will be able to access patient’s records from there. There will also be at least one 'thriving’ condition-specific self-help group linked to each practice.

High risk patients will have an emergency number for a GP or nurse and patients will get text reminders for appointments and can cancel appointments via text.

A GP survey in December 2013 showed only 48.9% of patients found it easy to get through to their GP practice on the telephone and a central telecoms switchboard-style system could also be installed at each cluster.

But Ruth Bagley, chief executive of Slough Borough Council, speaking at a Slough Wellbeing Board meeting last week, said: “To achieve this scale of change there are [many] obstacles. Some of it is about persuading GP practices to operate differently and to share. It’s also about persuading patients to behave differently. It’s a very ambitious plan and sounds great and on the right track, but how are we confident we can shift these obstacles?” Extended opening hours are expected to start in the coming weeks. The funding runs until March 31.