A £600,000 pilot scheme by the cash-strapped group in charge of planning Enfield’s healthcare was used by less than half the number of patients expected.

Enfield CCG - responsible for commissioning NHS treatment in the borough - was last year handed £612,000 for a programme providing 15,000 extra GP appointments for six months from October 1 until March 31, from 4pm-8pm Mondays to Fridays and 9am–5pm on Saturdays.

But a recent report from the CCG says only 6,271 patients were seen by GPs during the extended opening times - only 42 per cent of the planned target.

The appointments were available to Enfield patients at only two GPs - Evergreen Primary Care Centre in Edmonton, and Green Lanes Surgery in Winchmore Hill.

The aim of the service was to provide improved access to GPs and to reduce pressure on busy A&E departments, particularly North Middlesex University Hospital.

Enfield CCG said each seeing overtime patient cost £40.80, with the scheme overall costing £409,585 when including additional wages and expenses.

This left £202,415 over from the original grant, which the CCG said was put into “other pilots”.

They also reported good feedback from the pilot, saying 85 per cent of patients told them they were likely, or extremely likely, to recommend the service to a friend or family member

A spokesperson, which the group did not name, said: “As the scheme was a pilot, Enfield CCG was testing whether such a scheme would represent long term value for money

“Evaluation of the pilot scheme indicated that patient satisfaction with the service was high. However, despite high numbers expressing satisfaction with their overall experience of the service and the quality of care they received, demand for the service was lower than expected.

“The delivery of seven-day primary care services continues to be a key priority for NHS England.  In terms of general practice, this means 8am to 8pm seven days a week and the CCG has put forward proposals for Primary Care Access Funding and expects to hear shortly.”

A GP out-of-hours service, available when practices are closed in the evenings and weekends, can be accessed by calling 111.

The CCG was placed in special measures earlier this year having failed “to meet the financial discipline expected of the NHS.”

They had previously been set a target of £9.9m worth of cuts, but this year it has been raised to £17.1m.