PM Truss appoints new health secretary

Ms Coffey, previously work and pensions secretary, has been appointed to the role by the new prime minister, Liz Truss.

A close ally of Ms Truss, Ms Coffey has also been appointed as her deputy prime minister. 

The new prime minister, in her first speech in the role, said that putting “our health service on a firm footing” was one of her “three early priorities”.

She pledged to improve access and build “hospitals”. 

Ms Coffey said this evening her priorities were “ABCD”, representing “ambulances, backlogs, care, doctors and dentists”.

In an interview on BBC Radio 4 this morning, she said she would be meeting NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard today and would seek to “set clear expectation.”

Asked about ideas associated with the new prime minister before she became an MP, Ms Coffey said no NHS patients would be charged for care, but that the NHS must take advantage of all available capacity, including that provided by the private sector.

She replaces Steve Barclay, who was appointed to the role in July after Sajid Javid resigned from Boris Johnson’s government. Mr Barclay tweeted that he was “returning to the backbenches”. His tenure as health secretary was the shortest in the history of the NHS.

Ms Coffey is the fourth person to hold the role of health secretary in less than 18 months. She has been MP for Suffolk Coastal since 2010 and has also previously served as environment minister and deputy leader of the House of Commons. 

Among her commentary on health, she has previously called for the troubled East of England Ambulance Service Trust – which serves her rural constituency – to be broken up.

Ms Coffey was hospitalised for nearly a month in 2018 after an ear infection spread to her brain.