The claim NHS productivity has fallen - one of the justifications for reforming the health service - is a party political myth, an article in the Lancet medical journal concludes.
Professor Nick Black , from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, reexamined the data and argued the figures used by the Government are flawed.
He said the Labour party's failure to champion the success of the health service allowed a Conservative "myth" to take root.
"The absence of opposition resulted in a consensus that NHS productivity had indeed declined," he said.
He found figures produced by the Office for National Statistics, which suggested hospital productivity fell 1.4% a year and overall NHS productivity declined by 0.4%, did not take improvements in care into account.
The ONS estimated the quality of care increased by 0.8%, but Professor Black said it was higher than expected. If improvements in the quality of care amounted to just 1.3%, productivity overall would have increased not declined.
Deaths in critical care fell 2.4% a year and deaths after heart attacks by 5.3%, he wrote.
"Declining NHS productivity in England between 2000 and 2009 is just one recent myth in health-care policy," Professor Black said, adding it was up to the medical community to reduce the harm they cause.
He said the debate over productivity had been played out largely on party political lines.
"To justify the reforms to the NHS that the Conservative Party wanted to introduce, the claim of declining NHS productivity was necessary."
Labour gave up trumpeting its achievements when it lost the General Election, allowing the myth to become fact, he added.
The editor of the Lancet , Dr Richard Horton, said the article demonstrated why the "damaging and dangerous" NHS reforms should be killed off.
"If the main reason for the Health and Social Care Bill is a lie, the upheavals it will produce are entirely unnecessary," he said.
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley's plans have stuttered through Parliament and will be discussed again in the House of Lords this afternoon.
So far, 1,000 amendments have been added to the Bill to address concerns from coalition partners the Liberal Democrats, the Labour opposition and independent peers.
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Simon Hughes added to the pressure on Mr Lansley by calling for him to be replaced once the Bill becomes law.
"My political judgment is that in the second half of the parliament it would be better to move on," he said at the weekend.
Labour shadow health secretary Andy Burnham described the Lancet report as "hugely embarrassing" for the Prime Minister.
"It demolishes an anti-NHS argument that [David] Cameron and his Ministers have repeatedly trotted out for their right-wing re-organisation," he said.
Health Minister Simon Burns said: "We have always been clear that productivity in the NHS needs to improve and are committed to better outcomes for patients across the country.
"We are investing an extra £12.5bn in the NHS, but we want to make every penny count."
The reforms include increasing GPs' powers to commission services, establishing an independent NHS Board and abolishing Primary Care Trusts.
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