One of Britain's leading business managers, Sir Gerry Robinson, is to deliver a devastating indictment of management in the NHS in a move that will provoke fresh controversy over whether the extra billions of pounds earmarked for healthcare are being squandered.

After spending six months in a Yorkshire hospital in an attempt to 'turn it around' and cut the waiting lists, the former chairman of Granada and Allied Domecq told The Observer he left the hospital feeling upset about the state of the NHS. He said that the 'collective inertia' within the system, combined with weak management, meant that the right decisions were not being taken and that senior managers indulged in too much 'blue skies' thinking and too little time motivating staff.

In Can Gerry Robinson Fix The NHS?, a BBC2 series to be broadcast next week, Robinson is seen attempting to change attitudes at Rotherham General Hospital which has six-month waiting lists and low morale. He ends up asking the doctors to work through their lunch breaks to maximise the use of operating theatre time and addresses the question of why some consultants are so unhappy with the health reforms put in place by the government. By the end of the programme , the waiting lists had fallen and 90 per cent of patients were now getting their operation within three months.

Robinson, a Labour donor who was knighted in 2004 and a former chairman of the Arts Council, is adamant that simple techniques work. 'I came away from the programme feeling very upset, to be honest,' he said, speaking from his home in Ireland. 'We have this really precious thing which is free delivery of healthcare when you are ill. We shouldn't pretend it is a business, because it's not, but, my God, we should be running it well.

'The health service works brilliantly in so many ways, but it is failing in the sense that it is not getting the most out of huge amounts that are now being put into it. Given that there is enormous willingness among the staff, we should be able to get it right.'

Much of the criticism in the programme is reserved for the hospital's chief executive, Brian James. 'Brian comes through in the end, and he's an example of someone who could do it, but he tends to think of grand schemes and spends time looking into the future. Rather than just going from A to B to get things done, he tends to get there via 14 other letters first,' Robinson said. James, who became chief executive of the Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, two years ago, defended his management techniques this weekend, accusing the programme makers of 'concentrating on style rather than substance'.

He said: 'I was disappointed that it wasn't a more intellectual programme and it didn't really convey the complexities of running an NHS organisation. I know it's TV and you have to simplify things, but their great failure is to explain to the public that the NHS isn't like a business where you can hire and fire staff or change your prices. We work under a lot of constraints - both political and historical. I was very unhappy that much of the focus was on a small group of disaffected consultants who don't want to change their ways, when I get on well with 95 per cent of the consultants who want to make progress.

'I get redeemed in Act Three, in the final episode, when I do as Gerry suggests and get out and about a bit more. What disappoints me is that the main message seems to be that the chief executive should walk around a bit more and tell staff what they should be doing, and it isn't like that. It's about finding ways of incentivising staff who are frankly demoralised after years of reform. It's about stopping them being cynical and helping them to do more to look after the people they serve.'

There are now 40,000 managers within the NHS and their numbers have increased in recent years, but spending on management consultants has jumped more than fifteen-fold from £31m to more than £500m in two years.

Robinson believes there is a case for spending more on better, permanent hospital managers. 'If you spend money on really good management, and that would include spending enough to make it attractive for hospital consultants to become managers, then I think it would be worth it. It shouldn't be seen as a luxury.'