Professor Habib NaqviSector leader

Biography

Professor Habib Naqvi MBE is the founding Chief Executive of the NHS Race and Health Observatory, an independent body hosted by the NHS Confederation and supported by NHS England, which works nationally and internationally to identify and tackle ethnic inequalities in health and healthcare through research, policy recommendations, and long-term transformational change. He joined the NHS in 2001 and spent several years at the Department of Health and Social Care leading national equality and diversity policy, including the development of the Equality Delivery System and the health sector's response to the Ministerial review of the Public Sector Equality Duty. From 2013 he directed national health equity programmes at NHS England, including the Workforce Race Equality Standard, and has given evidence to the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee. He holds an honorary visiting professorship in health equity at the Queen's Institute for Medicine, University of Bolton, and received a Fellowship through distinction at the Faculty of Public Health in 2023. He was awarded an MBE in the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours for services to equality and diversity in the NHS. He is known for arguing that ethnicity data collection in the NHS is outdated and that reform of the Mental Health Act is essential to achieving mental health equity for Black and minority ethnic people.

References

1. 1.About us – NHS Race and Health Observatory — Current role as Chief Executive, responsibilities, and career background
2. 2.Habib Naqvi MBE – NHS ConfedExpo 2025 — Full career biography including MBE, FFPH fellowship, professorship, and HSJ listing
3. 3.Habib Naqvi: 'Policymakers should acknowledge that communities know better' – New Statesman, May 2024 — Confirms founding chief executive status and his public policy positions on ethnicity data and Mental Health Act reform
4. 4.Habib Naqvi MBE – HSJ Provider Summit — HSJ 100 most influential people in health 2022 listing; trustee of Mary Seacole Trust
5. 5.Professor Habib Naqvi MBE FFPH – University of Greater Manchester Medical School — CDC partnership and honorary professorship at University of Bolton

Expertise

Cited on

• Hospital discharge / bed-blocking
• Long Covid

Stated areas of expertise

• Ethnic health inequalities
• Health equity policy
• Workforce race equality
• Maternal and neonatal health disparities
• Mental health equity
• Ethnicity data and research

Notable achievements

• Appointed founding Chief Executive of the NHS Race and Health Observatory on its establishment Source ↗
• Awarded MBE in the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours for services to equality and diversity in the NHS Source ↗
• Received Fellowship through distinction at the Faculty of Public Health in 2023 Source ↗
• Listed in the Health Service Journal's '100 most influential people in health' (2022) Source ↗
• Forged partnership with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on global health equity work Source ↗
• Directed the development of the NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard at NHS England from 2013 Source ↗

What they’ve said

• “Prof Habib Naqvi, the chief executive of the NHS Race and Health Observatory”

  chief executive of the NHS Race and Health Observatory · Hospital discharge / bed-blocking · 27 Aug 2026 · Change prostate cancer treatment for black men to avoid ‘epidemic’, NHS urged ↗

• “It's shocking to see the levels of racism within our communities and across modern Britain today – levels that we have not witnessed for decades. We know our NHS is not immune from this scourge because it is a microcosm of wider society – what happens on our streets and within society does play out in the 1.5 million people that work in the NHS.”

  Chief Executive of the NHS Race and Health Observatory · Hospital discharge / bed-blocking · 27 Aug 2026 · NHS staff bearing brunt as ‘ugly’ racism of 70s and 80s returns, says Streeting ↗

• “The introduction of the new genetic testing is a 'groundbreaking outcome in the use of chemotherapy, which is already having a positive impact on patients' lives.'”

  chief executive of the NHS Race and Health Observatory · Hospital discharge / bed-blocking · 27 Aug 2026 · NHS improves genetic testing for minority ethnic cancer patients ↗

• “We need diverse medical representation across all specialities; the longstanding challenges of racial inequity and discrimination must be addressed with clear leadership, focused accountability and evidence-based interventions.”

Source references

1. Change prostate cancer treatment for black men to avoid ‘epidemic’, NHS urgedtheguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026
2. NHS staff bearing brunt as ‘ugly’ racism of 70s and 80s returns, says Streetingtheguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026
3. NHS improves genetic testing for minority ethnic cancer patientstheguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026
4. Black doctors in England four times less likely to get training places than white counterpartstheguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026
5. NHS radiographers report rise in overt racist abuse by patientstheguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026

Contact & links

• Xhttps://x.com/DrHNaqvipublished here ↗
• LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/prof-habib-naqvi-mbe-6b083217b/
• Staff pagehttps://nhsrho.org/about-us/
• Press office emailcomms@nhsrho.orgpublished here ↗
• Press office phone+44 7485305167published here ↗

Organisational contact points only, each taken from a page the organisation publishes itself. No personal or direct contact details are held or shown.