Downing Street insisted the Government had no plans to charge patients who miss NHS appointments despite Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt backing the principle of fining no-showers.

Mr Hunt said a move to alert people to how much they cost the taxpayer if they failed to turn-up was "a step towards" cutting the £1 billion a year cost to taxpayers.

While charging would be "difficult" to implement in practice, he said during an appearance on BBC1's Question Time, he had no objection to it in principle.

Prime Minister David Cameron's official spokeswoman moved swiftly to dismiss the idea and insisted that Mr Hunt was "clear" about Government policy on the issue.

"There is no intention to charge people if they miss appointments," she told reporters.

"He (Mr Hunt) talked about whether or not, in principle, he could see this idea.

"But the point that he was making is that when you have pressures on the NHS and challenges facing them then it's important that we get people to take personal responsibility for the way that we use NHS resources.

"The PM is clear that he is committed to free healthcare for everyone, wherever you are and whenever you need it and has no intention of charging for missed GP appointments."

While the pair had not spoken personally about the issue today "they both are clear that there is no intention to charge", she added.

Mr Hunt announced on Wednesday that all packs of NHS medicine costing more than £20 will have the price on them in a bid to cut down on waste.

Around £300 million is spent on wasted medicines every year, and the new labelling will also see medicines marked "funded by the UK taxpayer" in a bid to drive the message home.

Some NHS providers already include the potential cost to the taxpayer of missing an appointment in reminder messages.

Dr Richard Vautrey, deputy chair of the British Medical Association GP committee , said: "GPs do not want to become debt collectors, and it's more than likely that it would cost more in time and resource to collect such payments than the NHS would recoup.

"While patients do have a responsibility to keep appointments and inform practices or hospitals when they are unable to attend, charging for missed appointments is not the solution to this problem.

A Department of Health spokesman said: "The Health Secretary set out this week that missed NHS appointments cost the service nearly £1 billion - money which could otherwise be funding thousands more doctors and nurses.

"The NHS will remain free at the point of use under this Government, but we want people to be told the cost of missing appointments to encourage everyone to play their part in keeping the NHS sustainable."