The head of NHS England has announced she is standing down.

Amanda Pritchard was the first woman to take on the role in 2021, having previously served as NHS England’s chief operating officer, and before that, the former head of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.

Her decision to step down comes weeks after MPs on the cross-party Commons public accounts and health and social care committees accused her of lacking the “drive and dynamism” to radically reform the service.

Image:
Ms Pritchard giving evidence to MPs in the House of Commons earlier this month. Pic: PA

It has been a “hugely difficult decision for me to stand down”, she said in a statement on Tuesday.

“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 10 Year Health Plan.”

She said it had been “an enormous privilege to lead the NHS in England through what has undoubtedly been the most difficult period in its history”.

“The NHS is full of extraordinary people, who do extraordinary things every day for patients,” she said, adding: “I am confident they will continue to achieve incredible things for patients now, and into the future.”

MPs on the health and social care committee earlier this month said they were disappointed and frustrated by the “lengthy and diffuse answers” Ms Pritchard and other officials gave them under questioning.

Last week, she admitted “we’re not all brilliant performers at committee hearings” as she was challenged on the issue on BBC Breakfast.

NHS chief’s resignation was on the cards

Amanda Pritchard’s decision to stand down came as a surprise, but should come as no surprise. Speculation swirled around about her future even when Labour were still in opposition.

The official line from Wes Streeting and Ms Pritchard is that now is the right time for her to go. And while the health secretary has been full of praise for the NHSE leader’s work in steering the health service through its pandemic recovery, the last line in his tribute to Pritchard is telling. He said: “We will also require a new relationship between the Department for Health and Social Care and NHS England.”

And this is the crux of the matter.

It is widely believed that the health secretary’s ambitious reform of the public health sector will see the NHS chief executive role absorbed into his department. This would be a return to the set up before the controversial Andrew Lansley restructuring of 2012.

If that happens, it means a significant erosion of power at best and redundancy at worst for Ms Pritchard.

She is also hugely popular with trust leaders thanks to her long service in public health. But as Mr Streeting pushes for reform and efficiency – that relationship would have come under increasing pressure.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said Ms Pritchard could be “enormously proud” of her tenure.

He said: “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.

“She has led with integrity and unwavering commitment.”

He added: “The start of the next financial year and the publication of the 10 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.”

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NHS England said that having discussed everything with Mr Streeting in recent months – and now that the NHS has “turned a corner on recovery from the pandemic and the foundations are in place to make the necessary changes to the centre to best support the wider NHS” – Ms Pritchard had “decided now is the right time to stand down”.

Sir James Mackey will take over as “transition” chief executive from the first of April on a secondment basis, it said.

He is the chief executive of Newcastle Hospitals Foundation Trust and national director of elective recovery.

Ms Pritchard, who is married with three children and studied modern history at St Anne’s College, Oxford, was also deputy chief executive at Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust.