Dear colleague,

As we head towards the end of the year, I want to take this opportunity to thank you all for your hard work throughout this year. 

It has been a year of both achievement and challenge for the NHS, but the one constant throughout has been the incredible effort you’ve all put in, built on how much we all care for the NHS. 

Since taking up this role in April, I’ve been blown away by the commitment, the compassion and the expertise that I’ve seen from colleagues up and down the country – going above and beyond every day on behalf of your patients and each other. 

Together, we’ve achieved a huge amount due to the hard work of you and your teams. I know it’s not always been easy, and the circumstances have sometimes been challenging, but it’s important that we take a moment to reflect on how far we have come. 

The energy you all put into creating a genuinely exciting vision for the future of the NHS through the 10 Year Health Plan in the summer has been matched by the real difference we’re seeing in improvements in how care is delivered right across the service. 

Because of what you’ve done throughout the year we’ve achieved record levels of elective and cancer care for the summer months, helping to make significant reductions in waiting times for care. In primary care, GPs and their teams are delivering more appointments than ever, and more patients are getting the care they need from high street pharmacies. All of this is making a real difference to the lives of the people we serve and has delivered a big shift in public satisfaction with primary care this year. 

This is all the more remarkable given we have had to make some difficult decisions and big changes through this year, so I don’t underestimate how hard that has been for some of you. The year ahead will be just as challenging, but we’ve proven what we can do when we work together. This should all give us hope and confidence that we can build on this next year in our effort to recreate an NHS that we can all be proud of. 

To all of you who are working over the next few weeks, keeping our services running for patients at this incredibly busy time, thank you. It is very much appreciated. I hope you all manage to get a well-earned break at some point along the way. 

Thanks again, Merry Christmas, and wishing you a happy and healthy 2026.

Keep going… 

Jim

Sir James Mackey, Chief Executive, NHS England