Three more NHS England bosses have resigned just weeks after the service’s top doctor and CEO as the service faces an overhaul to bring it under closer government control.
Chief Financial Officer Julian Kelly, NHS Chief Operating Officer Emily Lawson and Chief Delivery Officer and National Director for Vaccination and Screening Steve Russell confirmed they would be stepping down in the coming weeks.
Their resignations come just weeks after NHS Chief Executive Amanda Pritchard and Professor Sir Stephen Powis, the organisation’s national medical director, also stepped down.
Health officials announced that the streamlining of roles at NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) could see the “size of the centre decrease by around half”.
In a message to NHS staff, health officials said that the latest announcements came as “part of the upcoming changes to the size and function of the centre”. NHS England will be “radically reduced” and the “size of the centre decrease by around half”, officials said.
“It has been a privilege to work alongside Julian, Steve and Emily – they have made a huge contribution to the NHS and the country as a whole and have been an enormous source of support for me personally,” Ms Pritchard said on Monday.
“There is no doubt the last few years have been the most difficult in NHS history, and the continued improvements to health service performance and productivity would not have been possible without their invaluable experience, skill and dedication.”
Julian Kelly joined NHS England in 2019 as chief financial officer, having previously been Director General of Public Spending and Finance at the Treasury and Director General Nuclear at the Ministry of Defence.
“It has been an enormous privilege to be part of the senior leadership of the NHS through the last six years as we have navigated Covid and the path to recovery,” he said in a statement, adding: “Although many things are not yet as we would want, I believe we have sown the seeds of recovery and are seeing the first fruits emerge – including in recovering productivity.”
Sir Stephen, the organisation’s top doctor, announced that he will step down this summer, after more than seven years in the role – just a week after the surprise resignation of Ms Pritchard.
At the time, the health secretary Wes Streeting insisted that her departure was amicable but it comes as the government is under intense pressure to improve the NHS by reducing extremely lengthy waiting lists and making it easier to see a GP.
Mr Streeting, who is gearing up to take the health service through a period of major reform, has said there must now be a “new relationship between the Department for Health and Social Care and NHS England”.
The second board member to announced their resignation on Monday was Emily Lawson, who took up her role as NHS Chief Operating Officer in 2017, overseeing the Covid-19 vaccination roll-out. She said: “The opportunity to lead the NHS covid vaccination programme – the biggest, most accurate, and most successful in our history – protecting the nation at speed and getting the country back on its feet, working with tens of thousands of NHS staff, community leaders, local and national government teams, and volunteers, was the best thing I have done in my career.”
Chief Delivery Officer and National Director for Vaccinations and Screening, Steve Russell, is the third member of the board to have announced his resignation on Monday after joining in 2022.
Sir James Mackey, who will begin his new role at the start of April, will set up a transition team within NHS England to lead the radical reduction and reshaping of the centre with Department of Health and Social Care.
