Chief Executive of NHS England

The chief executive of NHS England is the head of the National Health Service in England, and is a senior medical management adviser to the government of the United Kingdom. The chief executive directs the governing body of the NHS, and is the highest ranking member of the Health Service's board. There have been eight chief executives of NHS England since the post was established in 1985, following the report and recommendation of Sir Roy Griffiths. 
From 1985 until 2013 the NHS Executive and its predecessor bodies formed part of England's Department of Health. 
Since April 2013 NHS England has been an independent statutory body. It has been argued that NHS England's independence gives the Chief Executive 'the potential to be a prominent national figure able to speak on behalf of the NHS'.
Its clinicians, managers and health experts are employed as public officials not as civil servants.