Dr Geoffrey Rivett sadly died in July 2024.
Geoffrey worked in many roles in the health service throughout his lifetime; as a student as a theatre orderly, as a general practitioner, and in the Department of Health on policy in IT, primary health care, and hospital and medical school mergers and rationalisation. In retirement, he was for six years lead governor of a Foundation Trust, and later a member of Healthwatch.
His long-standing interest in ‘where have we come from, and how did we get here?’ led him to explore the past and write books on The Development of the London Hospital System since 1823 and subsequently on the history of the NHS since 1948, organisationally, clinically and professionally. Both were published initially by The King’s Fund and subsequently transferred by him to the Internet, as a widely used free resource. The Nuffield Trust is now the online home of NHShistory.net and the resource is now maintained and updated by the Trust.
Geoffrey lived in the City of London and regularly contributed to seminars, radio and TV programmes on health service development.