Patients will be able to judge the quality of their surgery through a Michelin-style rating system, under plans being discussed between doctors and ministers.

Family doctors will be marked out of three under a scheme being drawn up by the Royal College of General Practitioners.

The move has the support of ministers who want to increase pressure on GPs to perform after recent pay rises introduced as part of the new GP contract, according to the Times.

Surgeries will be rated by expert panels featuring a doctor, nurse, surgery manager and patient representative, the paper said.

But a Department of Health spokeswoman sought to play down the introduction of a rating system, just a year after it was scrapped in other parts of the health service.

"Any talk of a kite-mark scheme is very premature," she said.

A similar scheme introduced for hospitals and primary care trusts in 2002 was subsequently revised by the healthcare watchdog, the Healthcare Commission, on the grounds that the 0-3 star ratings system was too crude.

It was replaced last summer with an "annual health check" which now looks at a much broader range of issues.

Dr Hamish Meldrum, chairman of the British Medical Association's GPs Committee, said a scheme to evaluate the quality of GP services was already in place. "We already have a brand new quality rating system in general practice. It is called the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) and was introduced in April 2004 as part of the new GP contract", he said.

"Today's announcement of a separate rating system seems a bit like reinventing the wheel. Rather than being a crude measure of three levels as proposed today, the QOF covers not only clinical quality but the way a practice is run and responsiveness to patients. We already have a valid and reliable measure to show the public what sort of service they are getting from their family doctor practice. The QOF is a voluntary procedure but brings resources into the practice. Almost every practice in the country takes part."

Mr Meldrum added that while the BMA would always consider practical deliverable ways of demonstrating quality of service, he was concerned that doctors could be tied up in a raft of different assessments.

"There is a danger that if this new idea is introduced on top of the existing QOF inspections, annual appraisals and imminent revalidation for doctors, so much time will be taken up with proving quality that there will be insufficient time to provide patients with the services they need. "

Government concerns over patients' experiences of doctor's surgeries first surfaced after prime minister Tony Blair was berated live on television before last year's general election by a woman who could not book an appointment.

Mr Blair appeared genuinely astonished to hear of inflexible services which saw patients requesting an appointment beyond the government's 48 hour waiting time target turned away in some parts of the country.

The Department of Health said a major survey of some six million patients would be carried out next year to assess the quality of GP services.