NHS in ‘last-chance saloon’, says former health secretary Alan Milburn

Milburn set to take senior health department role and says crisis is million times worse' than when he was in office

The NHS is drinking in the last-chance saloon" and needs to change, the former health secretary Alan Milburn has said as he prepares to take up a senior role in the Department of Health.

Milburn, who brought about radical changes, such as the introduction of NHS foundation trusts, when he was a minister for Tony Blair, called for cultural change" in the health service and said big reforms will be needed to make it fit for the future".