Test and Trace boss Dido Harding to step down from NHS role later this year

Baroness Dido Harding will step down from her high-profile NHS role in October.

The Tory peer became chair of NHS Improvement in October 2017.

Baroness Harding was also executive chair of the Government’s Test and Trace programme until April this year.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said in the past Test and Trace was a “world-beating” system.

Baroness Harding had applied to become the new chief executive of NHS England but the role recently went to Amanda Pritchard, who had worked as chief operating officer of the health service for the past two years.

Among her previous jobs, Baroness Harding was chief executive of TalkTalk for seven years until 2017, and before that worked in senior roles for both Sainsbury’s and Tesco.

News of her departure from NHS Improvement was first reported by the Health Service Journal.