GPs have voted to reject the new primary care network system, condemning it as a “Trojan horse.”

The decision this week by a conference of local medical committees deals a devastating blow to the programme, five weeks after the British Medical Association and NHS England announced a deal. The conference back a series of resolutions criticising the latest proposals, stating that it was a “Trojan horse to transfer work from secondary care to primary care.”

Primary care networks were depicted as shoring up general practice, taking responsibility for employing thousands of new support staff. The early proposals angered GPs by setting new targets for visiting care homes.

The latest proposals shifted the task of making visits and medicine reviews to non-medical staff and offered new GP partners golden handshakes worth £20,000. However a resolution at this week’s conference described primary care networks as “an existential threat to the independent contractor model” and was backed by three to two.

The conference went on to call on the BMA to “urgently negotiate investment directly into the core contract as the only way to resolve the crisis in general practice is by trusting GP partners with realistic investment.”

The vote suggests that many practices may opt out of the directed enhanced services contract, putting primary care networks in jeopardy, the Health Service Journal reported. Practices have until the end of May to opt out of this contract.