NHS boss Amanda Pritchard quits and what 'new era' means for health service

NHS boss Amanda Pritchard has announced she will step down before a radical “new era” for the health service.

NHS England’s chief executive's departure is announced a few months before the start of what the Government has branded the biggest overhaul since the service’s creation in 1948. The announcement came a day after a meeting on Monday with Health Secretary Wes Streeting who is desperate for the NHS leadership to force through key changes including more care in the community to keep people out of hospitals and greater use of technology.

Ms Pritchard, who became the first ever chief executive of NHS England in 2021, announced she is standing down less than a month after two influential House of Commons committees criticised her leadership’s ability to guide it through this period of reform.

Mr Streeting said in a statement: "Amanda can be enormously proud of the leadership she has given in the face of the biggest health emergency for our country in modern history, as well as steering NHS England during turbulent political waters and six secretaries of state in her time as chief executive. The start of the next financial year and the publication of the Ten Year Plan for Health will be pivotal moments on the road to reform. We will also require a new relationship between the Department for Health and Social Care and NHS England."

Wes Streeting has insisted he wants to transform the NHS with “three big shifts” in healthcare - hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention. All three had been aspirations under previous Tory governments but with limited success in implementing them across the complex NHS ecosystem. Asked whether he asked her to step down, Mr Streeting replied: “No, I have so much respect and time for Amanda Pritchard.”

NHS England said that, having discussed everything with Mr Streeting in recent months - and now that the NHS has "turned a corner" - Ms Pritchard had "decided now is the right time to stand down". Ms Pritchard said in a statement: “It has been an enormous privilege to lead the NHS in England through what has undoubtedly been the most difficult period in its history.

“I am immensely proud of the NHS response to Covid-19, and how we have delivered steady recovery from the inevitable impacts of the pandemic. While it has been a hugely difficult decision for me to stand down, I believe now is the right time, with the NHS making continued progress in our recovery, and with the foundations firmly in place to deliver the Ten Year Health Plan.”

Mr Streeting told a health tech event at Apple’s London HQ two hours after Ms Pritchard’s departure was announced that the much vaunted NHS Ten Year Plan would be published in May. He said he wanted the NHS to be in the “driving seat of a paradigm shift in what health care means in the 21st century”.

Mr Streeting called for a “revolution in how we think about health and care in this country”, adding: “This is not simply about early diagnosis and fast access to better treatment. It is about our ability to predict and prevent illness that is the game changer and this is key to the long term sustainability of the equitable principle of the NHS as a public service that is free at the points of use, so that when people fall ill, they have to worry about the bill. With the NHS kind of beginning to emerge from the worst crisis in its history, financial sustainability is certainly big on my agenda.”

Sir Jim Mackey, who is the national director of elective recovery for the health service, will be taking over as interim NHS chief executive and is thought to be one of the frontrunners for the job full time. He will be seconded from his role as chief executive of the Newcastle upon Tyne hospitals NHS trust after being brought in to advise NHS England on cutting the record waiting list from 2021.

Sir Jim said: “I have always been very proud to work for the NHS and it will be an honour to lead the service through the next phase as we radically reshape the role of NHS England and work with the Government to build an NHS that is fit for the future through the Ten Year Health Plan. The NHS has experienced the most challenging period in its history. Not only the shock of the pandemic but picking up the pieces after. Amanda has done an extraordinary job of leading the NHS through this difficult period.

There had been speculation that NHS England would be abolished as an arms length body which decides on the day to day operation of the service. Instead Sir Jim will take over with a remit to “radically reshape how NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care work together”.

Mr Streeting is understood to want to effectively return to the NHS chief executive being a role within his department, as it was before the botched 2012 reforms by then-Tory health secretary Andrew Lansley. It means the Government will have greater direct control of the NHS to drive through the changes it wants to see.

MPs on the Public Accounts Committee had labelled Ms Pritchard, her deputy and two senior Government civil servants “complacent” and lacking dynamism after questioning them last month. The next day the Health and Social Care Committee criticised Ms Pritchard after she had given two hours of evidence to them, stating she had not demonstrated the “drive and dynamism” to transform the NHS.

At the time, a source close to Mr Streeting told the Mirror: "Pointless paperwork, stodgy process and a severe lack of urgency - this is exactly what Wes has been fighting against and he is determined to win. The whole system needs a proper shake-up and he's the only person with the guts to do it."

Speaking shortly after her departure was announced on Tuesday Mr Streeting told ITV News: “I've loved working with Amanda Pritchard for nearly eight months now, since I became Health and Social Care Secretary. She's given me wise counsel, she has led the NHS from the front, and not just since we've been working together, but actually over the last more than half a decade now, including leading the country out of the worst health emergency in modern times.

“So she leaves with my heartfelt thanks and the Prime Minister's thanks for the service that she's given. And I totally understand why, as we're about to launch a new era for the NHS - the 10 year plan for health - she's chosen this time to step back for new leadership. I'm really excited that Jim Mackey will be stepping up - a brilliant, reforming health leader who will help lead the NHS into this exciting new era.”

Lib Dem health spokesperson Helen Morgan MP said: "This change of administration must be a line in the sand for our NHS. The next leader must ensure that we deliver the improvement that patients so desperately need to see. Millions of people trying to access GPs, routine appointments, or emergency care have been failed by the current system. People up and down the country deserve better - and the new top brass at the NHS must deliver that."

Caroline Abrahams, Director at the charity Age UK, said: “Much will be written about what this means, but I’d like to sincerely thank Amanda for always giving 110% to the toughest of jobs at an incredibly challenging time.”