While at the
Department of Health he wrote his first book, The Development of the
London Hospital System 1823-1982,
(King's Fund 1986) on the evolution and
systematisation of the hospital service in London, and in retirement he
returned to contemporary medical history writing
From Cradle to Grave: fifty years of the NHS, published by the King's
Fund in 1998. This history combines
- The
clinical developments in the major specialties since 1948
- The
concurrent changes in primary health care and the hospital service
- The
political and financial background
This book, with a foreword by the then Prime Minister (Tony Blair), was published at the
beginning of 1998, the 50th anniversary
year of the NHS. It was well reviewed and there were substantial
sales. As the NHS continues to change, the material is kept up to date
on Internet. Geoffrey Rivett is committed to the idea of an effective health care system,
sees much that is good in the NHS, but is prepared to criticise when
necessary.
In 2004 he was elected as a governor of the Homerton University Hospital NHS
Foundation Trust becoming vice-chair of the governors in 2007. In
the anniversary year he wrote extensively on the service and has contributed
to radio and TV programmes for example BBC Two and the World Service.
In 2009 was invited to give the David Fine Distinguished Lecture at the
University of Southern Mississippi. He speaks on the NHS, for example
to US students from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and Chinese hospital CEOs at
the Moller Centre, Churchill College. He
has
also spoken at Gresham College and the Bishopsgate Institute.
He is a Fellow of the
Royal College of General Practitioners, a member of the RSM, and a liveryman of
the Apothecaries and Barbers. His interests include photography
(he is an Associate of
the Royal Photographic Society)
and web-authoring. He lives in the Barbican in central London.
His web site is
at www.rivett.net and he can be reached at
geoffrey@rivett.net
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