College announces new President and Council members

Professor Sir Sam Everington has been elected as the next President of the Royal College of General Practitioners for a two-year term starting in November 2025.

The College has also announced the results for six Nationally Elected Council Member seats on RCGP UK Council. The successful candidates in the election were (in alphabetical order):

• U A Tanvir Alam
• Cheska Ball
• Sam Everington
• Alice Hodkinson
• Deepthi Lavu
• Dominic Patterson 

As the President cannot serve as President and a Nationally Elected Council Member, the sixth Nationally Elected Council Member seat will be filled by the first runner up in the election process, Amrita Sen Mukherjee.  The Nationally Elected Council Members will start their three-year term of office in November 2025.

The RCGP President is the ceremonial head of the College. Unlike the other Medical Royal Colleges, it is the Chair of Council who provides the political and professional leadership of the College. Dr Victoria Tzortziou Brown has been elected as the next Chair of Council, succeeding Professor Kamila Hawthorne when she comes to the end of her three-year tenure in November 2025.

Following agreement at the Annual General Meeting in 2024, subject to Privy Council approval, the titles of Officer roles will change in the near future as follows, aligning with the structure of other Medical Royal Colleges where the President sets the strategic and policy direction of their respective College.

• Chair of Council will become President;
• RCGP President will become Provost.

Professor Sir Sam Everington has been a GP in East London since 1989, at the Bromley By Bow Centre. The centre has over 100 projects under its roof ranging from art and garden therapy and financial and jobs advice, all supporting the wider determinants of health. The social prescribing delivered at the centre, is now part of a network of thousands across the country and a growing movement across the world, with its focus on what matters to patients rather than what is the matter with them.

He is a member of RCGP Council, a Board Member of NHS England, and an Honorary Vice President of the British Medical Association. He is also an Associate Director of NHS Resolution, a Fellow and Honorary Professor of Queen Mary University of London and Honorary Vice President of the Queen's Institute of Community Nursing. He is a Board member of the East London Foundation Trust (a mental health trust) and co-chairs the College of Medicine charity.

In 1999 he received an OBE for services to inner city primary care, in 2006 The International Award of Excellence in Health Care(WONCA), and in 2015 a Knighthood for services to primary care. In 2022 he received the Albert Medal from the Royal Society of Arts - previous recipients include Marie Curie, Stephen Hawking, Winston Churchill.

He trained originally as a cadet pilot in the RAF, speaks Norwegian,  and lives with his wife in the East End of London, in the heart of his community.

Sir Sam said: “I cannot imagine a better job than being a family doctor.  I will do everything I can to support all my colleagues to achieve a happy and fulfilling career in general practice.”

Professor Sir Sam stood against two other candidates for the role, which is voted for by the College membership. 

The elections were conducted officially and independently by Civica Election Services.

RCGP Chief Executive and College Returning Officer Mark Thomas said: “Congratulations to Sam and to all our new nationally elected members - and thank you to everyone who put themselves forward for election.

“We look forward to working with our new President and new Council members to improve the working lives of our members and the care they deliver to their patients, now and in the future.”

Further information

RCGP press office: 0203 188 7659
press@rcgp.org.uk

Notes to editors

The Royal College of General Practitioners is a network of more than 54,000 family doctors working to improve care for patients. We work to encourage and maintain the highest standards of general medical practice and act as the voice of GPs on education, training, research and clinical standards.