Blow has been in the NHS for more than 30 years, and chief executive of the South West London system for eight years.

She said: ‘My focus until March will be to continue the work with our staff to ensure SWL is a great place to work, make sure our system continues to keep the momentum around the progress of our financial recovery plan, supporting and improving the performance of our NHS services, driving down health inequalities, and ensuring our strong culture of collaboration and partnership working continues into the future.'

Mike Bell, chair of NHS South West London, added: ‘Under Sarah's leadership for the past eight years SW London has delivered better joined-up services for local people, and become a more collaborative system, with strong structures and relationships at place and with our trusts, councils and other partners.

‘Sarah has led SW London into a good position where we can now look forward with optimism at this next chapter for our system, with a new government's focus and ambition for the NHS.'

‘There is a huge opportunity to reimagine cardiovascular disease prevention by leveraging science, AI and technology to transform the way we deliver preventive health care.'