IT'S 3am. Your toddler is coughing. He's had colds before but this one seems different - he can't seem to breathe.

So you call your doctor. And something called an out-of-hours service tells you that not only can your own GP not come out, you may have to wait two hours for the doctor who does.

If you're really worried, they tell you, you should take your baby to a treatment centre or to A&E.

Welcome to the night-time NHS, where nine million of us are saddled with a GP service that has been described by the doctors themselves, through the Royal College of General Practitioners, as "confusing, fragmented and highly variable".

Last year MPs on the powerful Public Accounts Committee blasted the new arrangements, created after GPs were allowed to opt out of night work for a relatively modest £6,000 pay cut.

The all-party committee branded the service as "difficult to access", "slow to respond" and "not good enough".

That was certainly the experience of one mother from Poole, who contacted the Daily Echo.

"My daughter was ill. I had been pushed from pillar to post," she said. "NHS Direct got a doctor to call me over two hours later, only to tell me to go to a treatment centre at midnight with my child. I had to get my other child up only to sit for nearly an hour when I got there."

So is it any wonder that Poole NightDoctor has been launched this week, offering a private, out-of-hours service for £1 a day?

Practice manager Stuart Brennan, whose father Dr Nigel Brennan will be leading the medical team, says: "Dorset hasn't the best record for out-of-hours performance-based statistics in the country. We looked at a number of factors in coming to Poole, including the number of people who would benefit from the use of the service."

He says the firm's aim is to "improve healthcare" not "replace the NHS". Their glossy brochure, which started dropping through Poole letterboxes this week, promises that: "Our highly experienced doctors provide a personalised and fast response to health problems arising at night, allowing you to be treated in your own home."

But isn't this a service we are already paying for, through our National Insurance and taxes? Is it right that some people feel the service they receive is so bad they need to pay?

Dr Tom McKinstry, who practises in West Moors and is a member of the British Medical Association, believes it is wrong if people feel they have to pay to guarantee a night visit from a doctor. "It's basically another private insurance scheme," he says.

However, he says there are other implications.

"Will patients have to pay for any medication they receive from this service at night?" he asked. "Normally, if a NHS GP comes out to see you, he may give you some medication and then write you a prescription for the next day.

"However, if you are seen by a private doctor you normally have to pay for the medication yourself and some of it can cost an arm and a leg."

Poole's Cllr Chris Bulteel, who heads the borough's Health Scrutiny Committee, was equally unimpressed, claiming the service could lead to a two-tier system.

He said: "Through my work I have had cause to use the out-of-hours service and I've found it extremely efficient in Poole. Having said that, I really think it was a mistake for the government to change the old system because in an emergency, there's nothing like seeing a GP you know and most people don't have that now."

Cllr Bulteel said he would be asking the Health Scrutiny Committee to look into the service and why it had apparently targeted Poole. "Since I've been the chair, the out-of-hours service isn't something the committee has scrutinised but I think we will now," he said.

Bournemouth and Poole Primary Care Trust are due to discuss the issue at their meeting today.

In a statement they said: "Bournemouth and Poole Teaching PCT currently commissions a comprehensive out-of-hours service from the Dorset Emergency Care Service (DECS). This facility is mainly staffed by local general practitioners, supported by a range of other health care professionals, and is very highly regarded.

"Should patients wish to access an alternative private service, they are of course able to do so. However, this is not a service that has been commissioned by the PCT and we currently have no plans to change our existing arrangements."

A spokesman for Poole NightDoctors said they had been inundated with enquiries following the publication of the story in the Daily Echo yesterday.