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Clinics manned by a single doctor should be replaced by one-stop health shops run by several GPs, health minister Lord Darzi has told the BBC.

So-called 'polyclinics', which house GPs alongside medical services normally offered at hospitals, are better suited to patients' needs, Lord Darzi said.

He has already proposed them for London and says they would work nationwide.

But the British Medical Association says they will be wasteful and will undermine continuity of patient care.

'Fantastic relationship'

Lord Darzi told the BBC Breakfast programme that although "most patients love their GP" a change was coming.

He said: "We need to separate that fantastic relationship between a patient and a doctor from where most practices now are on average four, five, six GPs working together under a single roof.

"So I have no doubt in the future we are going to see a critical mass of general practitioners working together, rather than what we used to see in the past which were practices with a single-handed clinician."

Ministers have already said they want to establish 150 polyclinics in London.

'Threat' to hospitals

One such centre - the Heart of Hounslow Centre for Health in west London - opened in February 2007.

As well as 18 GPs, there is an independent living service, which includes community matrons, district nurses, physios and neuro-rehabilitation teams.

The service, which takes referrals by the family doctors at the centre, treats a range of patients from those with diabetes and heart conditions to people recovering from strokes and elderly people who have suffered falls.

The centres, however, may be perceived as a threat to hospitals which, under the government's market-based reforms, are now paid per patient treated.

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