The NHS is spending too much on the ‘most expensive and often underperforming parts of its system', a former Labour health minister has said.

In a letter to The Times, Lord Warner said it was ‘good news' that the secretary for state for health and social care was going to hold NHS managers to ‘firmer account' on patient waiting times but warned this would not solve its ‘deep-rooted problems'.

The Labour peer said the NHS had become ‘fiscally incontinent' and sought a 3-4% real-terms annual increase from an economy that struggles to generate GDP growth of 1.5%.

Lord Warner said too much of resources were being spent on acute care at the expense of ‘less glamorous services that would give a bigger bang for its buck' listing these as: public health and ill-health prevention; adult social care; mental health; and elective surgery hubs making greater use of private sector capacity.

Lord Warner was a minister of state for health focused on NHS delivery and reform between 10 May 2005 and 4 January 2007.

He was also Parliamentary undersecretary for health between 13 June and 10 May 2005.

The Labour peer has also served on a number of Lords committees, including the Long-Term Sustainability of the NHS between 25 May 2016 and 5 April 2017.