Conservatives have considered limiting the number of times patients can visit their family doctor in a year, it has emerged.

Documents examining health reforms ask Tory activists if they agree or disagree with an annual cap on the number of appointments patients can book.

It is one of a number of options grassroots members were asked to look at in a consultation document, Local Health Discussion Brief, posted on the Conservative Policy Forum (CPF) website.

Among them were whether GPs should take greater responsibility for out of hours care in their area - something Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt addressed earlier this week - and if seeing a GP for a routine appointment in the evening or at the weekend is a luxury the country cannot afford.

The CPF describes itself as a national party group that gives members the opportunity to discuss the major policy challenges facing Britain and is chaired by Cabinet Office Minister Oliver Letwin.

Health experts reacted angrily to the suggestions, according to the Independent on Sunday. Dr Clare Gerada, chair of the Royal College of GPs, told the newspaper: "This was obviously written by someone who has never been unwell, or has never met people who work in the health service."

She added: "People come because they are ill or because we are asking them to come because we are concerned about them. What we should do is fund general practice sufficiently so that we can offer flexible appointment times."

Labour health spokesman Jamie Reed told the Independent on Sunday: "This paper, hidden away on their website, reveals the Tories' true agenda for the NHS. After throwing the NHS open to ever more privatisation with a wasteful and damaging reorganisation, it seems the Tories want to go even further.

"It's shocking that they are considering limiting the number of times patients can see their GP - changing the fundamental principle in the NHS constitution that access to the NHS is based on clinical need.

"The Tories have already wasted £3bn on a top-down reorganisation of the NHS and overseen a crisis in A&E - now they are consulting their members on opening up the NHS to even more competition, and making it harder for patients to see GPs in the evenings and at weekends."