In England, the NHS is run by an organisation with an identity crisis. It calls itself NHS England, but that’s just self-promotional branding. In law, it is the NHS Commissioning Board, created by Andrew Lansley’s controversial 2012 reforms which gave the NHS a high level of autonomy from direct government control.
The NHS Commissioning Board was first run by ex-Communist Sir David Nicholson; then by a former Labour councillor and ex-New Labour special advisor Sir Simon Stevens, who steps down at the end of July. Based on that trajectory, a cynical observer might suggest that in the distant future even a former Liberal Democrat could one day get the job.
But could the ‘NHS England’ top job go next to a prominent Conservative? And could it be the infamous head of the test and trace programme, Dido Harding?
Speculation among NHS ‘lifers’ about Steven’s successor began as soon as he announced his retirement in April.
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