Responding to the announcement that Amanda Pritchard is the new chief executive for NHS England and NHS Improvement, the chief executive of NHS Providers, Chris Hopson, said:

"NHS Providers, and the wider NHS, will strongly welcome Amanda's appointment. Her unique combination of experience in leading one of the largest and most successful NHS trusts in England, being the chief executive of NHS Improvement and chief operating officer of NHS England and NHS Improvement, and having worked in Number 10 Downing Street, ideally equip her for this vital role.

"Over the last two years, trust leaders have welcomed Amanda's calm, team oriented, and effective national operational leadership of the NHS through one of the most challenging periods in its history. She has a deep and strong connection with NHS frontline leaders and staff which will be much needed given the scale of the challenge ahead. It is also particularly pleasing to see a female NHS chief executive appointed for the first time in the service's 73 year history.

"The challenges ahead are formidable but the NHS has shown, in its response to the pandemic, an extraordinary capacity to innovate and adapt at pace whilst maintaining the collective, compassionate and caring ethos that places the NHS at the heart of our national life. These are firm foundations from which to meet the coming challenges.

The immediate tasks for Amanda will be to lead the NHS through the current wave of COVID-19, deliver the next phase of the vaccination campaign and ensure the NHS is able to provide the care patients rightly expect through the coming winter.

"The immediate tasks for Amanda will be to lead the NHS through the current wave of COVID-19, deliver the next phase of the vaccination campaign and ensure the NHS is able to provide the care patients rightly expect through the coming winter. This will require a rapidly agreed, realistic, NHS budget settlement for the second half of the financial year.  It is also vital that, from the outset, Amanda maintains the momentum on tackling health inequalities, race inequality and improving diversity and inclusion in the NHS.

"Looking further to the future, the NHS will need to continue driving improvements in patient care and health outcomes across a range of different areas where we know the NHS needs to improve. These include cancer and cardiac care, mental health and providing more care closer to home. This will require significant change and innovation.

At the same time, the NHS will need to be properly configured to cope with COVID-19, and its consequences, longer term.

"At the same time, the NHS will need to be properly configured to cope with COVID-19, and its consequences, longer term. This will mean an effective plan to treat care backlogs and the new pressures that COVID-19 has brought in mental health and long COVID. More fundamentally, we will need a root and branch review of the long term capacity the NHS needs including a robust long term workforce plan.

"The spending review settlement expected in the autumn will be key, as will be work to ensure a properly funded and sustainable solution to the crisis in social care, without which the NHS can never flourish. At the same time Amanda will need to oversee the successful creation and development of the 42 new integrated care systems, established formally through the new Health and Care Bill.

"Lord Stevens has been an exceptional NHS chief executive and everyone in the NHS will want to thank him for his outstanding leadership. It is fitting that Amanda, as his deputy for the last two years, should be appointed as his successor."