An NHS trust is among five named in a government intensive recovery programme.
Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust has been identified as one of the most "challenged" trusts in England, facing patients' longest waits for care, persistent financial issues, and high leadership turnover.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting announced the trust will be placed under the new NHS Intensive Recovery programme, designed to address "deep-rooted challenges" and improve performance in some of the "worst services in the country."
Mr Streeting said: "Right now, a cluster of high-performing trusts are masking some chronic under-performance in other parts of the country.
"Failure has been tolerated for too long.
"Staff know it. Patients feel it.
"And I won’t stand for it.
"We won’t have succeeded in changing the NHS until we change it for the patients who are suffering the worst services in the country.
"In some places, so many years of poor service without improvement is feeding that sense of fatalism.
"They believe that after so long, it just can’t get better – in fact, they’ve never seen it get better.
"That’s why I’ve announced today a new intensive recovery programme.
"This will target the worst performing providers, sending in our best leaders or delivering the structural changes necessary to get them back on track.
"No more turning a blind eye to failure."
The Department of Health and Social Care said the trusts identified are not failing through lack of effort but face "deep-rooted challenges" including "structural constraints and financial imbalance."
Each trust in the programme will receive a tailored package of support, which may include leadership changes, bringing in senior NHS figures with a record of improvement, restructuring organisations, or capital investment for ageing buildings.
The programme will formally begin in April.
Some trusts may see changes in top management as part of their recovery plan.
Mr Streeting made the announcement during a speech at the University of East London.
He said the overall performance of the NHS was improving, as reflected in a recent rise in public satisfaction, but that persistent poor performance in certain areas could no longer be ignored.
Recent data has shown an increase in public satisfaction with the NHS, according to the latest British Social Attitudes Survey.
However, experts said that improvements were "fragile" because the public was still largely "unhappy" about the service in 2025.
