• Health secretary and NHS England chief executive deliver speeches at NHS Providers conference
• Simon Stevens warns hospital waiting lists could grow to five million by 2021 without funding increase
• We welcome address and the public acknowledgment that the NHS can no longer deliver what it needs to on the funding available

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt and NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens have delivered key note addresses at the NHS Providers annual conference in Birmingham.

The health secretary outlined plans for a national workforce strategy to be published next year.

Simon Stevens used his address to call for additional funding in the upcoming Budget and warned that without it hospital waiting lists could grow by a quarter to five million by 2021.

Responding to the speeches by Jeremy Hunt and Simon Stevens at the NHS Providers annual conference in Birmingham, the chief executive of NHS Providers, Chris Hopson, said:

The NHS can no longer deliver what it needs to on the funding available and it is important that Simon Stevens has said this for the first time clearly and publicly.

“We strongly welcome the directness, honesty and clarity of what Simon Stevens has said today. We have been arguing for some time that the NHS can no longer deliver what it needs to on the funding available and it is important that Simon Stevens has said this for the first time clearly and publicly.

“He is right to warn that without extra funding there will be consequences for patients, who will have to wait longer, and may not get the treatment they should have when they need it.

“We are all now clear about the importance of the decision that the government faces in the forthcoming budget.

“Our call for a workforce strategy has clearly been heard. However there is a very significant difference between a future plan to grow workforce numbers and a much wider workforce strategy which addresses the key challenges the NHS is facing – as set out in our report There for us: a better future for the NHS workforce.”