More than 800 members of the campaign group GP Survival - a grassroots group set up to protect general practice in the face of a growing crisis - voted in less than 48 hours on a no confidence motion that called on the health secretary to quit.

A total of 99.6% of respondents - who represent nearly a fifth of the total membership of GP Survival - declared they had no confidence in the health secretary.

The group said Mr Hunt's actions as health secretary had 'fallen below the standards one would expect of a government minister', pointing to his use of 'questionable statistics' as the basis for policies, and for 'alienating and decimating' whole branches of the medical profession, 'such as junior doctors, nurses, consultants, paramedics and GPs'.

GP Survival also expressed dismay that the health secretary had 'tried to discount the comments of the British Red Cross, who consider the current state of our nation’s healthcare a humanitarian crisis'.

Jeremy Hunt

A statement released by the group says: 'It is the position of GP Survival that our membership has no confidence in the health secretary. We consider him destructive and detrimental to the NHS, the professionals who dedicate themselves to it, and the patients who desperately need it to work. We will not stand quietly while the NHS fails under his watch.

'We call for Mr Hunt’s immediate resignation or removal and we call on other organisations, within and allied to the NHS, including the BMA and the RCGP to conduct their own votes of no-confidence in the health secretary. We would, as an organisation, be willing to work with a new health secretary who can understand the nature of the health service, its staff, and its complexity.'

A DH spokesman said: 'As the health secretary has repeatedly made clear, NHS staff are our greatest asset - that's why we have invested in the frontline and are committed to making sure patients get the right care at the right time from excellent, well-resourced GPs.

GP workforce

'We’re funding that with £2.4bn, which is an increase of 14% into the primary care budget by 2020, as well as expanding the GP workforce.'

The government has said it is determined to make sure the NHS has the right number of staff to provide safe, compassionate care, seven days a week, and will continue to work towards ensuring the NHS will have 'over 11,000 more doctors, including consultants and GPs, by 2020'.

GP Survival said that the NHS was 'currently beyond breaking point, it is broken'. The group warned that the health service has been 'starved of funding', pointing to the risk to patients and staff in the ongoing NHS winter crisis , and hitting out at plans to press ahead with seven-day services and efficiency savings.