Senior NHS managers have warned that the health service is facing its “greatest ever challenge” in maintaining quality services during the funding squeeze.

With the health service in England having been told to find up to £20bn of savings by 2014, Nigel Edwards, acting head of the NHS Confederation, warned there was “no silver bullet” and stressed that moving care away from hospitals and improving the management of long-term conditions such as diabetes would be essential. He also acknowledged cuts would be made.

Nigel Edwards, Acting Chief Executive

Nigel Edwards is director of policy for the NHS Confederation and acting chief executive. His role is to influence health policy on behalf of members, develop policy positions on areas of key interest and speak on behalf of NHS organisations, particularly in the media. Nigel Edwards, who is an Honorary Visiting Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, was formerly the director of the London Health Economics Consortium which undertook high profile strategic health services research and consultancy in the UK and overseas. Before that, he was a senior manager in the NHS. Nigel Edwards has researched and written extensively on health service strategy and policy.