Dr Nikki Kanani to leave NHS England after six years

The GP who led the development of PCNs and primary care’s response to the Covid pandemic has announced she will leave NHS England after six years.

Dr Nikki Kanani was the commissioner’s medical director for primary care and led the development of PCNs and a new five-year contract for primary care, as well as the response to the pandemic as deputy SRO for Vaccination and Screening.

She will step down next month from her current role as director of clinical integration.

NHS England said that Dr Kanani ‘played a significant role in the biggest and most successful vaccination roll out in health history’. 

She had ‘an instrumental role’ in delivering vaccinations in different ways to reach communities, including offering them on buses, at sport stadiums and places of worship, and will continue to work as a GP in Southeast London.

Dr Kanani said: ‘Working with so many dedicated colleagues over the last six years has been a massive privilege and I will really miss working at NHS England.

‘The work we do is hugely important for frontline services with patients at the heart of everything we do.

‘From improving improve access for patients to saving thousands of lives through vaccination, I am incredibly proud of everything we have achieved together.’

NHS England’s chief delivery officer and national director for vaccinations and screening Steve Russell said: ‘I’d like to thank Nikki for all her incredible work – not just in her most recent work on clinical integration which ensures patients are at the heart of what we do but also her work leading other priority areas, including primary care, over the last six years.

‘Nikki played a crucial role in the extraordinary covid-19 vaccination programme – leading the world in providing the first ever approved vaccine but also helping us to reach out into communities and vaccinating millions of people at speed.

‘Nikki’s commitment to the NHS, her colleagues, her patients, and the communities we serve has been firmly at the heart of everything she does and means she will be massively missed.’

Dr Kanani left her role as medical director of primary care in July 2022 to join NHS England’s chief delivery office team as director for clinical integration, initially on secondment.

Professor Claire Fuller, a GP and chief executive of Surrey Heartlands ICS, has recently been appointed as NHS England’s new medical director of primary care.