NHS crisis ‘a million times worse’ than under Tony Blair, former health secretary warns

The NHS is “drinking in the last-chance saloon”, Labour’s top health adviser and a former health secretary has warned, saying it must stop asking for more money.

Alan Milburn, who was a minister under Tony Blair, said the service needs radical reform rather than more cash, calling for an end to what he said was a “more, more, more culture”.

He called for clinics to be paid for keeping people healthy and out of hospital in an attempt to improve both care and efficiency.

It comes ahead of an announcement by Wes Streeting next week, where he will outline plans on how the £22.6bn extra funding announced in Labour’s first Budget should be spent.

The health secretary will set out goals and targets to improve healthcare, as well as cutting waste.

Mr Milburn, who ran the department under Sir Tony, has been confirmed as the NHS’s key adviser on reform this weekend, acting as the lead non-executive director of the Department of Health.

In September, Mr Streeting was forced to defend allowing Mr Milburn to attend meetings at the Department of Health at a time when he had no official role.

The former health secretary has now warned that the service is “a million times worse” than when he was in government, adding: “I genuinely think it’s drinking in the last-chance saloon.”

Speaking to The Times, he predicted that Mr Streeting would go “further and faster” than New Labour.

“The NHS has got to be weaned off the ‘more, more, more’ culture, and it’s got to recognise that if you’re going to do big dollops of resources, then that has got to be matched by a massive dose of reform,” he added.

He said there is a “different fiscal climate” now compared to when he was health secretary, adding: “If you’ve broadly got less resourcing than then, you’ve got to do more reforming than then.”

Mr Milburn, who was an MP between 1992 and 2010, served as health secretary under Sir Tony between 1999 and 2003.

He was behind the introduction of NHS foundation trusts in 2002.

Announcing the appointment on Saturday, Mr Streeting said Mr Milburn “made the reforms which helped deliver the shortest waiting times and highest patient satisfaction in the history of the NHS”.

The health secretary added: “His unique expertise and experience will be invaluable, and he has an outstanding track record of delivering better care for patients.”

In the notice from the Department of Health and Social Care, Mr Milburn said: “Having spent three decades working in health policy, I have never seen the NHS in a worse state. Big reforms will be needed to make it fit for the future.

“I am confident this government has the right plans in place to transform the health service and the health of the nation.”

Mr Streeting has previously described the NHS as “broken”, pledging to reform the service. He said his predecessor will offer advice on “turning the NHS around”.

Building “an NHS fit for the future” was one of Labour’s five missions laid out in its election manifesto.

The party promised to cut waiting times by offering more appointments, as well as more cancer scanners and a new plan for dentistry.