Health Secretary John Reid told the Commons on Tuesday new guidance will also stress patients should also have access to Saturday morning surgeries.

The clarification follows concerns about a new contract allowing GPs to opt-out of providing out-of-hours care.

This has led to some services being established where patients are assessed by other health professionals.

We are committed to ensuring that patients have access to high quality and appropriate and timely healthcare out of hours. John Reid

Under the new arrangements 300 primary care trusts around the country are responsible for providing out-of-hours primary care services.

But, with so many GPs opting out of working extra hours overnight and at weekends, some PCTs have been hard pressed to offer a service fronted by GPs.

In Lincolnshire for instance, one primary care trust has set up a service in which nurses are the point of first contact for its out-of-hours service.

And in north Northumberland, just one GP provides night-time cover over an area stretching from Berwick to Hexham after all 53 surgeries opted out of providing a night-call service.

Mr Reid told the Commons that the government would shortly be publishing requirements that clarified what was expected of out-of-hours cover.

He said: "I can make it absolutely clear in the meantime that this will include access to home visits from a GP, should a patient's condition require it, and access to Saturday morning surgery."

Dr Reid said the new GP contract was designed to relieve the pressure on hard-pressed family doctors, and give rise to a better and faster service for patients.

He said: "We are committed to ensuring that patients have access to high quality and appropriate and timely healthcare out of hours."

However, Liberal Democrat Alan Beith, whose Berwick-upon-Tweed constituency is covered by the single GP out-of-hours, said the arrangement had put great pressure on the local ambulance service.

"Hasn't this part of the new contract gone rather worryingly wrong?" he said.