Former waiting-list buster and current director of the Commission for Health Improvement Dr Peter Homa has been made a CBE in the Queen's Birthday honours.

Len Fenwick, chief executive of Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals trust, Professor Rod Griffiths, regional director of public health for West Midlands, and Dr John Chisholm, chair of the British Medical Association's general practitioners committee, were also made CBEs.

Dr Chisholm said the award 'recognises not just my work but the work of the GPC'.

Others key figures in health receiving awards included HSJ columnist Marianne Rigge, director of the College of Health, who received an OBE.

Knighthoods went to Dr Iain Chalmers, director of the UK Cochrane Centre, Graham Morgan, executive director of nursing and quality at North West London Hospitals trust, Professor George Karoly Radda, chief executive of the Medical Research Council, Professor Roddy McSween, until recently president of the Royal College of Pathologists, and Nicholas Young, chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Relief.

A fuller list of honours will be printed in next week's HSJ .