Peter Homa, head of the government's waiting list hit squad, will be director - responsible for the day to day running of the Commission for Health Improvement (Chimp or CHI).

Dame Deirdre Hine will be chairwoman of the organisation.

The commission - which will begin work on 1 November this year - is a new statutory body set up to assess standards, and to take action where local units are failing to provide a satisfactory service.

The BBC's Vanessa Edwards outlines the commission's powers

Mr Homa will have the power to send in hit squads to failing hospitals.

The commission has been compared to that of Ofsted in regulating the education system and Oftel in the telecommunications industry, and has been dubbed "Ofsick" in some quarters.

Waiting-list buster

Mr Homa's background is in hospital management - he was previously chief executive of Leicester Royal Infirmary, a large university hospital.

Peter Homa will have wide-ranging powers

He is currently working for the government to improve waiting list procedures for hospital treatment.

Dame Deirdre was Chief Medical Officer for Wales for seven years until 1997.

During that time she co-chaired the group that produced the influential Calma-Hine report on improving cancer services with her counterpart in England with Sir Kenneth Calman.

She is also president-elect of the Royal Society of Medicine.

The commission will visit all hospital trusts in a rolling review programme to ensure that robust clinical governance arrangements are in place locally and that guidance is consistently implemented throughout the NHS.

The role is that of a "health enforcer" - guaranteeing that the recommendations of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence are met.

Performance checks

It will also provide a check on the implementation of National Service Frameworks, which are supposed to set out the best practice for the management of various conditions.

It will oversee a range of national external clinical audits in which, for the first time, all hospital doctors will be required to participate.

Mr Dobson said: "With the establishment of the Commission, for the first time in its history, the NHS will have a body dedicated to spreading good practice and tackling problems at the earliest possible stage.

"Now all parts of the NHS will be able to turn to the Commission for advice and help in solving problems.