Professor Sir Anthony Herbert EveringtonBarristerMBBSMRCGP known as Sam Everington, is a GP at The Bromley by Bow GP partnership in Tower Hamlets, east London, since 1989. He has held the role of chair of NHS Tower Hamlets Clinical Commissioning Group since its creation in April 2013 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 clinical leadership, while retaining patient focus.” In 2018 he was appointed to the role of chair of the London Clinical Commissioning Council, London's 32 clinical commissioning group chairs. In 2018 he became a member of the national NHS Property board and was also appointed as an associate non-executive member of the board of NHS Resolution. Dr Everington 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 is an advocate for social prescribing. Considered a founder of the social prescribing movement. He says, "it focuses on what matters to patients. This increases satisfaction, delivers better health outcomes and reduces prescribing and referral costs." 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. 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. Despite this, Sam was appointed as a member of the General Medical Council. A role he held from 2009 to 2012. He was one of the first medics on scene at the Tavistock Square bus 7/7 bombings in 2005. He was a member of the Department of Health's Art and Health Working party in 2006. In 2007/8 he was appointed as an adviser to the Health Minister. He initially backed Andrew Lansley's Health and Social Care 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 appointed as a trustee of the King's Fund in 2014.
