The NHS could axe more than a dozen select surgical procedures, including liposuction and tummy tucks, in a bid to save up to £2 billion.
Health service chiefs are hoping for additional funding by cracking down on "wasteful" spending amid concerns over the use of taxpayers' money.
Professor Sir Stephen Powis, the NHS medical director, said the “crackdown” was part of efforts to improve efficiency and focus on the most effective treatments.
However, it is understood previous efforts to curb costs have failed, reports the Daily Express.
More than seven million people are on waiting lists for surgeries.
The proposed cuts fit into a wider debate within the Government as PM Rishi Sunak attempts to find cash for its "fiscal black hole" of up to £50 billion in public finances.
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NHS chiefs, with assistance from senior medics at the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, have drawn up the list.
They advised that operations specified in the draft guidance, which includes procedures like liposuction and tummy tucks, should lose routine funding.
They added that NHS professionals should only perform some procedures under specific criteria.
Other operations on the chopping block include corrective surgeries for congenital breast asymmetry and male gynecomastia.
NHS chiefs said they routinely review treatments to ensure British taxpayers receive their money's worth.
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Prof Sir Stephen said the service aims to give patients "the most effective treatments possible at an affordable price for taxpayers".
He added they "routinely assess and change services to make sure they are as efficient as possible".
Professor Powis said officials have already cracked down on "medications and interventions that are of low value for patients and take money away from the public purse".
He named prescriptions for herbal remedies and dietary supplements that have "historically cost the taxpayer millions" as those already targeted.
Professor Dame Helen Stokes-Lampard, chairman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, said the programme would allow officials to redirect cash "towards those things that are proven to be beneficial".
The latest list of 13 follows others previously devised by officials that promised a wider-scale crackdown.
In 2020, they proposed axing 31 procedures, among them non-elective treatments such as adenoid removal for glue ear and imaging for lower back pain.
A spokesperson for the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges said: "Any money saved from procedures which the evidence tells us are no longer clinically appropriate is spent on procedures which are.
"Medicine is constantly evolving and the Evidence-based Interventions programme is about capturing those clinical advances and making sure we offer the best and most appropriate care to the greatest number of people."
They added that previous reports of apronectomy and bariatric surgeries being on the list were incorrect, and they "are actually calling on doctors to do more not less".
The full list of surgeries that could be axed
- Male gynaecomastia reduction surgery
- Breast prosthesis removal
- Corrective surgery for congenital breast asymmetry
- Optical coherence tomography (OCT) use in diabetic retinopathy referral
- Shared decision-making for cataract surgery
- Glaucoma referral criteria
- Thyroid nodule referral and investigation
- Asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis screening
- Management of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs)
- Liposuction
- Diastasis recti repair
- Angioplasty for PCI (percutaneous coronary intervention) in stable angina
- Non-visible haematuria
- Needle biopsy of prostate
- Penile circumcision
