Professor Paul Goddard, a former radiology section president of the Royal Society of Medicine, made a scathing attack yesterday on the way the health service is being run, saying "an enormous amount of money has been put in but it has been wasted on excessive management".

He said the NHS is in "meltdown" and claimed medics refused to speak up about the problems for fear of being sacked.

Prof Goddard told Radio 4's Today programme: "Thousands of patients have been starving in beds because the nurses do not have time to feed them.

"That used to be a major part of the nursing process; now they just don't have time because they have to spend all their time doing reports and management work."

Superbugs were killing people by the "hundreds"; "you can't get dental care"; and people had to pay to have elderly patients looked after. Draft guidance to deny patients four kidney cancer drugs on the NHS was a "disgrace".