Large numbers of doctors' surgeries in Brighton and Hove are expected to stop providing night and weekend cover.

New GP contracts due to come into force next year give surgeries the chance to ditch out-of-hours services.

Responsibility will instead fall to the city's primary care trust (PCT).

This is likely to come through organisations such as BrightDoc or Prime Care, which are made up of a range GPs, including locums, who will work to provide cover on a shift basis.

Most surgeries in the city already use the service, especially those which only have one or two doctors.

Under the new contract rules, surgeries which choose not to provide cover could lose at least £6,000 a year but some believe it may be worth it if it means providing a better service during the day.

Susan Rockwell, a GP based at Portslade Medical Centre, said: "Many GPs are already working a full and busy day.

"Adding a long night shift cover on top of that can be exhausting.

"I think many people prefer the idea of having the time and chance to expand services provided during the day instead.

"We are not sure how this will work out but the main problem is the usual one of not being able to recruit doctors and nursing staff to help provide all the services needed both during the day and out of hours."

A PCT spokesman said there was a good chance a large number of practices would opt out of out-of-hours cover but did not expect patients to be affected.

He said: "The money which we would normally allocate to surgeries for the cover will be given to another organisation instead as long as we were sure it would be able to provide the service needed."

The PCT has almost £500,000 a year to spend on out-of-hours services for the 50 practices across the city.

Eighty-three per cent of GPs in England and Wales say they will ditch night and weekend cover when the contract is introduced in April, according to a poll commissioned for Radio Five Live and the Radio 4 Today programme.

In areas where PCTs are not ready to take over, GPs will be obliged to cover for another six months from April but by the end of next year they will no longer have to provide cover.

At present, GPs who do not want to work nights and weekends can buy out-of-hours cover, usually provided by GP co-operatives, at an estimated cost of between £3,000 and £17,000 a year.

Those who decide to pass responsibility for providing out- of-hours cover to primary care trusts in April are expected to lose an estimated £6,000 a year in income.

Dr John Chisholm, chairman of the British Medical Association GP committee, said: "Patients will still have access to an out-of-hours primary health service when the new contract for GPs comes into force next year.

"When they need to see a GP, a doctor will be there for them."