The NHS is being asked to find 4% efficiency savings if it is to maintain care standards at current levels.

Former Conservative health secretary Stephen Dorrell, who now chairs the Commons Health Select Committee, told the programme that it was a "huge ask" to find 4% savings, a feat which had never been accomplished by the NHS.

"We can't find any precedent of any other healthcare system anywhere in the world having done it," he said.

But Liberal Democrat Health Minister Paul Burstow said the goal "has not just popped out of thin air, it... has been worked through on the ground by NHS staff up and down the country".

He said that by "relentless focus on quality" and a 45% cut in administrative and management spending, the NHS could find the savings.

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