Sam Everington

Sir Anthony Herbert Everington OBE known as Sam Everington, is a GP in east London and chair of NHS Tower Hamlets Clinical Commissioning Group.

Under his chairmanship Tower Hamlets Clinical Commissioning Group was awarded Clinical Commissioning Group of the year by the Health Service Journal in November 2014. The judges praised the group’s “strong leadership, especially around clinical leadership, while retaining patient focus.” Dr Everington is a Non-executive director of Community Health Partnerships. He is part of the Bromley by Bow Centre GP partnership, an innovative community organisation with more than 100 projects under its roof supporting wider determinants of health. He was appointed as a trustee of the King's Fund in 2014.

After completing a law degree and Bar finals from Inns of Court School of Law he qualified as a barrister in 1976. He studied medicine at Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine from 1979-1984.

In the 1980s he made his name as a campaigning junior doctor, finding a novel way of highlighting the dangerously long hours that doctors then worked (an average of 84 hours a week). To do this he slept outside the Royal London Hospital.

In 1989 he became, and continues to be, a council member of the British Medical Association, holding the role of deputy chair from 2004 to 2007.

In 1993 research into racial discrimination in recruitment of medical professionals led Everington and Professor Aneez Esmail to be arrested and charged with making fraudulent job applications. For research they applied for vacancies in the name of people with traditional Anglo-saxon names and Asian names. Each applicant had similar experience and qualifications for the roles. They found that the applications with Anglo-saxon names were twice as likely to be shortlisted than those with Asian names. Everington and his colleague were cleared of the charges. The research was published in the British Medical Journal. The General Medical Council said that the behaviour was unbecoming of the medical profession - but took no action against the doctors. The results of the research provided the first documented evidence of discrimination in the NHS. In 1994 both, Everington and Professor Esmail, received an award from the Campaign for Freedom of Information for this work.

In 2005 he was the first medic on scene at the 7/7 bombings in London.

In 2007/8 he was appointed as an adviser to the Health Minister (Primary Care Access) and was a member of the Department of Health's Art and Health Working party in 2006. He initially backed Andrew Lansley's health reforms but later reversed his stance. He says that while clinical commissioning is rightly well supported, the huge re-organisation under the Health and Social Care Act was unnecessary.

He was a member of the General Medical Council from 2009 to 2012.

Honours and awards

In 1999 he was awarded an OBE for services to inner city primary care and was knighted in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to primary care.

He was reckoned by the Health Service Journal to be the 43rd most influential person in the English NHS in 2015.

External links

• Bromley By Bow Centre

• The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 61092. p. N2. 31 December 2014.
• 2015 New Year Honours List