42. Dr Sam Everington

This GP has an influence far beyond his London borough of Tower Hamlets.

As NHS England’s national adviser on its new general practice care models, he has injected a lot of good sense into this pivotal programme.

His trail-blazing Bromley-by-Bow practice received an outstanding CQC rating this year, although he says he still wishes ‘the national system put more investment in quality improvement rather than regulation’.

But he has not escaped controversy this year. Sir Sam is also the clinical lead of the North East London STP – whose plan has received criticism for proposing severe cuts to services. (His Tower Hamlets GP colleague Dr Louise Irvine has just managed to convince the council to block it, and two other councils in the area have already opposed it.)

He is also a sponsor of the Clinical Effective Group, based at Queen Mary University of London, which he says is ‘leading the country in the use of shared data and dashboards for quality improvement’ and has been promoting the idea of social prescribing.

In addition to the above, Sir Sam is also a member BMA Council, a trustee Kings Fund, director of Community Health Partners and governor of a Tower Hamlets primary school.

Why influential

Vital voice of sense within Whitehall

What others say

‘Behind the scenes influence at NHS England and DH’

Random fact

‘I speak Norwegian and have trained as a woodcarver’