Leadership in the NHS is rarely loud, often thankless, and almost always tested in moments of uncertainty. It is defined less by announcements than by endurance: the ability to hold a steady course while institutions shift, pressures mount and expectations continue to rise.
Against that backdrop, Ming Tang, Chief Digital and Information Officer (Interim) at NHS England, has announced that she will be stepping down from her role later this year, marking the close of more than 16 years of service that have quietly but fundamentally reshaped how the NHS thinks about data, technology and leadership itself.
Ming’s tenure spans one of the most challenging and consequential periods in NHS history. She has led through structural reform, fiscal constraint, accelerating demand and unprecedented technological change, while maintaining a clear sense of purpose about what digital and data transformation should ultimately serve: better care for patients, better support for clinicians and a more resilient health system.
As Chief Data and Analytics Officer, Ming played a pivotal role in redefining how data is valued and used across the NHS. Under her leadership, analytics moved from the margins to the centre of decision-making, informing national policy, operational planning and frontline delivery. She championed the use of data not as a retrospective reporting tool, but as a forward-looking asset capable of improving outcomes, productivity and system performance. The foundations established during this period strengthened data quality, improved interoperability and enabled the NHS to operate with greater confidence at scale.
Her work brought coherence to a landscape that had long been fragmented. By prioritising standards, governance and reuse, Ming helped reduce duplication and unlock national leverage, ensuring that digital investment translated into tangible benefit rather than disconnected initiatives. These changes quietly but fundamentally altered what the NHS is now able to do with its data.
More recently, as Interim Chief Digital and Information Officer, Ming provided stability and clarity at a time of sustained organisational and financial pressure. She brought together digital delivery, data strategy and commercial discipline, aligning national programmes with the operational realities faced by trusts, clinicians and patients. Her leadership ensured that ambition remained grounded, and that progress was measured not only by innovation, but by adoption and impact.
Colleagues and partners consistently describe Ming as a leader of rare balance: intellectually rigorous yet deeply pragmatic, calm under pressure, and quietly authoritative. She has earned trust across government, arm’s-length bodies, NHS organisations and industry, often acting as a bridge between policy intent and real-world delivery. In a system where complexity can overwhelm progress, her ability to cut through noise while holding the bigger picture has been widely admired.
Beyond structures and programmes, Ming’s legacy is also personal. She has been a committed advocate for building capability and confidence across the NHS’s digital, data and analytics community. By investing in people, professionalism and long-term institutional strength, she has helped develop a generation of leaders who will carry this work forward. Her influence can be seen not only in platforms and standards, but in the culture and credibility of NHS digital leadership itself. In her personal announcement to colleagues across the NHS, Ming Tang thanked those who have contributed to innovations in digital on behalf of patients and the broader NHS:
"It has been a real privilege to work with so many of you over the years. Together, we have delivered and mobilised significant programmes that are laying the foundations for a more connected, data-driven and digitally enabled NHS; from the NHS Federated Data Platform and the NHS App, to setting the vision for analogue-to-digital transformation in the 10-Year Health Plan and establishing the Single Patient Record. These programmes reflect the strength of partnership between the NHS, industry, academia and the wider system."
-Ming Tang, Chief Data and Analytics Officer, Chief Digital and Information Officer, NHS England
Ming Tang has confirmed that she will remain in post for a transition period to support continuity and an orderly handover, with interim arrangements to be announced in due course.
Her departure marks the end of a defining chapter for NHS England. The foundations laid under her leadership have materially strengthened the NHS’s ability to use data and technology in service of care, outcomes and sustainability. As the system enters its next phase of reform, those foundations will endure as a testament to what principled, disciplined and patient leadership can achieve.
