Professor Jason Leitch to step down as Scotland's national clinical director in April
Professor Jason Leitch has announced he is stepping down as Scotland's national clinical director at the end of April.
Professor Leitch will also leave his post at NHS Tayside in a decision to "look for new challenges across health and care after a break".
He shot to prominence during the COVID pandemic, appearing at Holyrood briefings alongside then first minister Nicola Sturgeon on a near-daily basis as well as fronting public information campaigns on TV, radio and online.
Announcing the news on Tuesday, he said: "It has been an enormous privilege to carry out this role and work closely with colleagues across the health and care sector in service of the patients, their families and carers.
"The NHS and social care system does remarkable work every day, and I am immensely proud of the teams I have had the privilege of being part of.
"The ongoing success of the Scottish Patient Safety Programme is globally recognised and has significantly improved the safety and reliability of care in many ways.
"The COVID pandemic was an unprecedented challenge for all countries and I am proud of my colleagues inside and outside government for their incredible work.
"It was a privilege to be able to communicate with the public so directly and be part of that coordinated response, and I will forever be grateful for the public's attention and willingness to follow the guidance - it saved lives."
Professor Leitch has worked for the Scottish government since 2007 and was appointed national clinical director in the health and social care directorate in January 2015.
The professor came under the spotlight while the UK COVID-19 Inquiry was sitting in Edinburgh in January.
He refuted a suggestion by Jamie Dawson KC, counsel to the inquiry, that colleagues in a group chat were "keen to try to delete messages which may subsequently be recoverable in a freedom of information request".
During a WhatsApp exchange, Ken Thomson, the Scottish government's former director-general of strategy and external affairs, warned that its contents were "FOI-recoverable" and sent an emoji face with a mouth zipped shut.
Professor Leitch responded: "WhatsApp deletion is a pre-bed ritual."
When questioned at the inquiry about his response, he claimed it was a "flippant exaggeration" and said he did not delete his WhatsApp messages daily.
He maintained he deleted WhatsApp messages in line with the Scottish government's policy on the use and retention of informal messaging.
Prior to his government role, Professor Leitch was an oral surgery consultant with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
He is an honorary professor at the University of Dundee and a visiting professor at the University of Strathclyde.
The professor was awarded a CBE in the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours.
He is also a board member of two large international charities - the Nazareth Trust, which runs a hospital and nursing school in Northern Israel, and the Indian Rural Evangelical Fellowship, which runs an orphanage, college and nursing school in rural southeast India.
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The Scottish government said arrangements for the national clinical director post will be "set out in due course".
First Minister Mr Yousaf said: "Jason Leitch has made a fantastic contribution to the health of the nation, leading work to reduce hospital acquired infections and improve the quality of care in the NHS.
"The enduring success of the Scottish Patient Safety Programme is testament to his work.
"He played a huge role in helping me and fellow ministers navigate the COVID pandemic by providing advice to help reach the best decisions, and by communicating so well with the public.
"I of course wish him every success in the future."
