The Health Secretary said "it's absolutely not what I want" as he said sorry after the NHS made the unprecedented step to postpone non-urgent surgeries to February, which will result in around 55,000 operations being axed.

He said the controversial decision was taken to allow a "planned, methodical, thoughtful" approach.

The Tory politician told Sky News: “We recognise that it is better if you are unfortunately going to have to cancel or postpone some operations, to do it in a planned way. 

"So that’s why this year we've decided to take this decision, or this independent panel has decided to take this decision. 

"And that I think in the end is better for people - although if you are someone whose operation has been delayed, I don’t belittle that for one moment and indeed I apologise to everyone that has happened to." 

Mr Hunt's apology comes after Prime Minister Theresa May said the postponement of non-urgent operations in UK hospitals was "disappointing" and "frustrating".

But Mrs May insisted the "NHS has been better prepared for this winter than ever before". 

A winter crisis has seen the NHS crippled, as A&E units report they are even running out of corridor space for patients, amid 12-hour waits. 

One senior doctor even aplogised to patients for what he admitted were "Third World conditions". 

And on Tuesday NHS medical director Sir Bruce Keogh, ordered NHS trusts to stop taking all but the most urgent cases, closing outpatients clinics for weeks as well as cancelling around 50,000 planned operations.

The British Medical Association hit out at the decision, saying NHS funding is "well below" what other comparable European countries spend on healthcare.

The union Unite, which has 100,000 members in the health service, said the Government had "failed" to provide sufficient funding for one of the nation's proudest achievements.

Dr Anthea Mowat, chairwoman of the British Medical Association's representative body, said: "The NHS is in the grips of another winter crisis, as patients face long delays in care, operations are cancelled and staff find themselves working under extremely difficult circumstances.

"What is happening in our A&Es is symptomatic of pressures across the entire system, hospitals are at capacity, GP surgeries are full and a shortage of social and community care means that many patients who no longer need to be in hospital can't be discharged as there is simply nowhere for them to go.

"Short-term fixes, however well meaning, will only get us so far.

"Each winter the pressure on the NHS worsens, and politicians are not taking the long-term view needed to ensure the NHS can keep up with rising demand."

It comes after flu cases rose by 67 per cent in a week in England - meaning around 3.7 million people came down with such symptoms over the Christmas period.

At the Royal Stoke University Hospital, A&E consultant Dr Richard Fawcett apologised to patients on Twitter.

He posted: "As an A&E consultant... I personally apologise to the people of Stoke for the Third World conditions of the department due to overcrowding.

"It breaks my heart to see so many frail and elderly patients on the corridor for hours and hours."

Dr Mowat added: "We have to look again at NHS funding, which remains well below what other comparable European countries spend on healthcare, to ensure the NHS has the staff and the capacity needed to deal with the pressures it faces year in, year out, but which are compounded during the winter months."

Unite's national officer for health, Sarah Carpenter, said: "The NHS celebrates its 70th birthday this summer, but the Government has put it in intensive care by failing to provide sufficient funding to secure the future of one of Britain's greatest achievements.

"The pitiful sums that Chancellor Philip Hammond made available in the budget smack of political revenge because NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens dared to speak out plainly about the scale of the financial crisis.

"If this is the case, it is a stain on Theresa May's Government.

"The current crisis has seen an unprecedented number of health professionals speaking out, as they have a professional duty to do so, about the threat to patient care.

"It is the frontline professionals who are doing all they can to protect patients, not ministers.

"Every winter the NHS comes under intense pressure, this is something that can be planned for, but ministers have spectacularly failed to rise to the challenge this year."