LONDON: A former Conservative Health Secretary has said the government did not adequately prepare the NHS for winter, as hospitals struggle to cope with increasing demand.

Stephen Dorrell told that for patients missing out on some 50,000 operations, the health service was not meeting standards.

He went on to say the NHS’s problems will go on until ministers are willing to have a major rethink on how all public services are structured and funded, with increased spending at the core of any change.

Dorrell, who currently chairs the NHS Confederation, also warned there are dangers for the Conservatives if they go into another election without talking about more money for public services.

It comes soon after Theresa May apologised to patients who had operations cancelled due to a surge in demand, and as hospitals began reporting using children’s wards for adults.

Earlier this week the NHS National Emergency Pressures Panel took the drastic step of calling for health trusts to delay non-urgent operations until at least the end of the month.

But officials and politicians having been reluctant to accept there is a crisis, with the Prime Minister insisting the NHS is better prepared this year than ever before.

Dorrell said: “It’s true that there has been a better effort that has gone into trying to meet the demand of greater stresses on the NHS. There are people being treated and who are satisfied, and for those people there is not a crisis.

“But for those people for whom the health service is not meeting standards to deliver high quality care, it should be.”

He went on: “So better prepared, yes, adequately prepared - no.” Average bed occupancy across all trusts jumped to 91.7 per cent between Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve compared to 90 per cent occupancy in the same week last year, analysis by The Independent showed.

It remains significantly higher than the recommended safe operating levels of 85 per cent occupancy, above which hospital infections and “bed crises” become more common.

But Dorrell said the current difficulties facing the NHS, were linked to a much wider problem in the way the country had structured public services.