Ministers have ‘maxed out’ health service funding, says NHS England boss

Jim Mackey says state of public finances means country can no longer afford big spending rises

Ministers have maxed out" the amount of money they can give the NHS and it must learn to live with smaller annual budget rises, the health service's new boss in England has said.

The parlous state of the country's finances means the government can no longer afford to hand the service big uplifts every year, despite the huge pressures it is under, Jim Mackey added.

Promised to tackle completely unacceptable" variation in the quality of care patients receive, depending on which part of the NHS treats them.

Voiced alarm that situations that previously would not have been tolerated, such as old ladies being on corridors next to an emergency department for hours on end", have become normalised".

Said ministers had come to see the existence and independence of NHS England as a complication", because of tension" and frustration" over not being able to order it to do what they wanted, before they decided to abolish it.