Speaking to The Telegraph, Sir Jim said the NHS had been stuck in ‘fossilised ways' that had not changed since its foundation.

He said: ‘It feels like we've built mechanisms to keep the public away because it's an inconvenience. We've got to somehow reorient it; think about how do we find people who need us, how do we stop thinking "it's going to be a pain in the arse if you turn up because I'm quite busy" and instead think about how do we find out what you need and get it sorted.'

With public confidence in the NHS at an historic law, the NHSE boss said: ‘If we lose the population, we've lost the NHS.'

He added: ‘There is a strong argument that we have wasted a lot of money in the last few years, we haven't spent it as wisely as we could have done.'

The NHSE chief's comments come ahead of the expected publication of the 10-Year Health Plan this week.

The report revealed the plan will include trialling ‘patient power payments' with full payments given to hospitals only if patients are happy with care provided.

A&E funding is also expected to be dependant on cutting waiting lists and shifting care into the community.