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Dr Porter said the NHS was already "on the edge" struggling to cope with a double whammy of budget cuts and structural change.

Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, has also said that GPs must take back responsibility for care provided to their patients at weekends and evenings, although the Government has yet to spell out how this might work.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, a member of BMA Council, said: "It is utter folly to compare the NHS with seven days a week supermarket opening and convenience; Tescos opens seven days for commercial reasons alone, Tesco draws income by being open on Sundays – and equally it would close down a store without hesitation if unprofitable."

By contrast, he said, the NHS was a public service operating within "a fixed inadequate budget, and with a responsibility to manage its overstretched resource for maximum health gain".

He said the extra costs of staffing the NHS seven days would make it uneconomical, with costs magnified because staff would expect "premium pay" for Sunday working. Stretching the current workforce over seven days would simply worsen care during the week, he said.

"This ill-conceived, populist agenda of seven days a week routine care is a luxury the NHS cannot afford and would be an irresponsible use of the public purse - which would not only bankrupt the NHS but compromise safe care and equity of care for patients," said Dr Nagpaul.

Later, Dr Porter said the NHS needed to invest in "the basics" to provide high quality emergency care 24 hours a day, before working out if it could afford a "consumer-driven service."

Despite demand for GPs to provide more services at evenings and weekends, Dr Porter said he was aware of family doctors who were "bored silly" because patients did not turn up to their evening surgeries