Speaking to the Public Accounts Committee yesterday Sir Jim said progress towards the target, which has not been met since 2013-14, had been knocked off course by high demand this year.

Sir Jim said: ‘We are aiming to deliver on the standard every day but from where we are now it's not going to be in the next couple of years. It's going to be a longer time frame than that.

‘It's realistically not something we can plot a path to from where we are now.'

The NHS England boss said senior leadership teams were about to enter planning discussions for 2027 but had not set a date for delivery of the standard.

He said urgent care demand increased by 6% year-on-year in September with elective demand also up significantly.

Sir Jim said increasing demand appeared to be driven by better access to primary care.

‘Patients are now more able to see a GP and as a result more patients are flowing on to hospital care,' he said.

The Health Foundation has predicted the NHS will fall well short of its elective demand target of 92% of patients receiving treatment within 18 weeks by 2029.

Meanwhile, the overall NHS waiting list rose for the fourth time in five months by 41,848 to 7.4m in August.