The NHS is living on “borrowed time” and will not survive if Labor fails to improve it, the Health Secretary has said.

Wes Streeting told leaders at the NHS Providers Conference in Liverpool that there was a need to “recover and renew” health services.

He said: “The Prime Minister promised the greatest reinvention of the NHS and it is on all our shoulders to deliver that – the crown jewel of this Government’s decade of national renewal. »

Mr Streeting told NHS leaders “we are in this together”, adding: “The NHS is already living on borrowed time and if a Labor government cannot improve the NHS then it simply will not survive. »

It comes after the Health Secretary said failing hospitals would be named and shamed in league tables and NHS managers would be sacked if they failed to improve patient care and take control of finances.

NHS England will carry out a “no holds barred” review of the performance of the NHS across England, with the results made public in regularly updated league tables.

NHS trusts can expect to be ranked on a range of indicators such as finances, service delivery, patient access to care and leadership competence.

Health officials hit back at the move, saying it could demoralize staff, and accused ministers of “getting caught up in the seductive notion of a magic productivity tree that will make the NHS more efficient simply by shaking stronger the magic tree.”

Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Streeting told BBC Radio 4’s Today program that “where we have underperforming senior managers, I will make no apologies for managing those people, because people know – and that is the guilty secret of the NHS – that there are very senior staff who are paid on average, let’s not forget £145,000 a year, who are managed, paid in one trust and then reincarnated into another trust in the NHS”.

Under the Government’s plans, persistently failing managers will be replaced and turnaround teams sent to trusts which are running large financial deficits or providing a poor service to patients.

Meanwhile, top performers in the NHS will benefit from greater control over their spending to help them modernize their buildings, equipment and technology.

The Department of Health said there is currently little incentive for trusts to generate budget surpluses as NHS trusts are unable to benefit from them, but this will now change, with trusts more efficient companies receiving more of this money.

Mr Streeting has already announced that failing NHS managers will be denied pay rises if they do not improve patient care or get their finances in order.

A new remuneration framework for top executives will be published before April next year, with financial rewards for those who perform well.

NHS Providers deputy chief executive Saffron Cordery said the scale of the challenge facing NHS leaders was “enormous” and they were “doing everything possible to increase productivity while implementing measures strict efficiency standards.

She added: “It is essential that we take decisive action to tackle the root causes of pressures on health services, including lack of resources for public health, prevention and social care, chronic shortages of workforce, financial deficits and historical underinvestment in bricks. and the mortar of the NHS that underpins so many of the challenges we face today.

Rankings by themselves do not lead to improvement

“Taking steps to address these root causes is essential before plans to introduce rankings and threats of ‘firing failing managers’ are even put on the table. »

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said “the prospect of more ‘rankings’ will worry health officials as these can suppress important underlying information.”

“NHS staff are doing their best for patients in very difficult circumstances and we don’t want them to feel like they are being named and shamed.

“Rankings by themselves do not lead to improvement.

“Trusts experiencing ongoing performance issues, some of which reflect contextual issues such as underlying population health and staff shortages, need to be identified and supported in order to recover. »

Nuffield Trust chief executive Thea Stein said: “We know from the special measures for the quality regime that naming and shaming NHS trusts can make it more difficult to recruit staff, which does not help at all patient care.

It’s not clear what the new rankings will measure – a table based on general wait times doesn’t do much good if you need to know how good heart surgery is…

“It’s not clear what the new rankings will measure – a table based on overall waiting times doesn’t do much if you need to know how effective heart surgery is…

“Ministers have long warned the NHS against naive belief in the magic tree of money.

“But they themselves risk falling for the seductive notion of a magic tree of productivity that would make the NHS more efficient simply by shaking the magic tree harder, rather than by changing the drivers of efficiency .

“This can only lead to the NHS being forced to ask for ‘more, more, more’, and patients will ultimately pay the price.” ​