Patients would be charged £8 a day when in hospital under proposals from a former health service boss to raise more money for the NHS.  

Prof Stephen Smith is also urging ministers to bring in charges of £4 to £8 to help cover the costs of medical equipment that patients need, such as hearing aids and walking devices.

People over 60 should also start paying for their prescriptions, to help raise more revenue for an underfunded NHS that is under “unsustainable” pressure from rising demand, said Smith.

Rising public dissatisfaction with the health service and patients’ unprecedented waits for GP care, ambulances and routine operations mean ministers need to urgently instigate a review of how the NHS is funded, which should include the creation of “co-payments” for some services.

Smith, the former chair of the East Kent acute hospital trust, has set out his ideas in a new book published by the thinktank RadixUK. Its trustees include the ex-Conservative health secretary Andrew Lansley and the Labour MP Stephen Kinnock.

“I think the public would be prepared to pay some additional charges,” said Smith, who has also served on the boards of the Great Ormond Street and Imperial College Healthcare NHS trusts in London. Means-testing would ensure the poor were not affected unfairly, he added.