In Parliament he focuses on defence and international relations (particularly maritime issues), science, the environment, health, and higher education policy.
[24][25] After a spell in Congo and Malawi, he became general manager for a large NHS psychiatric hospital outside Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and ran community mental health services for North Tyneside and Northumberland.
He was then appointed group manager of Guy's and St Thomas' hospitals in London[26] before moving to New York City Health Department.
[29] He was also an elected Labour councillor for Brixton, in the London Borough of Lambeth 1998–2002, though for at least the past decade he has not been a member of any political party.
[32][33] It showed that - contrary to prior research mainly using public Medicare data - cost differences in the working age population were often because of market pricing power by hospitals, rather than because of excessive use of services by patients.
Stevens was appointed as Chief Executive of NHS England after a worldwide competitive search,[36] and served under Prime Ministers David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson.
[49] As NHS England Chief Executive, he has given lectures and speeches at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, Exeter, London, Birmingham, York, Manchester, Southampton, Newcastle, and previously at Harvard, Yale, and NYU.
[56][57][58][59] He announced that the NHS had become the first health service in Europe to negotiate approvals for newly licensed breakthrough CAR-T cancer therapies.
[62] Stevens also announced that NHS England had also successfully negotiated a confidential deal to make available a gene therapy said to be "the most expensive drug in the world" with a reported list price of £1.8 million per patient.
NHS England was sued by the British Homeopathic Association who argued that Stevens' criticisms, including on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, prejudged its public consultation.
[78][79][80] Stevens added: "Anything that gives homeopathy a veneer of credibility risks chancers being able to con more people into parting with their hard-earned cash in return for bogus treatments which at best do nothing, and at worst can be potentially dangerous".
[83] In a speech at Oxford University he took aim at the "dubious and dodgy" anti-science in Gwyneth Paltrow's Netflix show, The Goop Lab.
[103] He has suggested that social media companies might be asked to contribute to funding improved mental health support for young people.
[107] Stevens is a supporter of expanded university places for the health professions such as undergraduate medicine and nursing,[108] which could also meet the increased interest in these careers in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
[109][110] As well as supporting expanded health training opportunities for UK workers, he has backed ongoing selective international recruitment in the NHS.
[111] In October 2015 speaking to the Institute of Directors at the Albert Hall he queried why ballet dancers but not nurses were on the Home Office's 'shortage occupation list.
[121][122] Stevens has pushed to give local communities more control over national budgets, including stronger 'Devo Manc' regional powers for Greater Manchester.
"[130] In November 2017 Stevens gave a high profile speech making the case for a return to NHS funding increases in line with historic norms and independently assessed requirements.
[131][132] He did so against the backdrop of a Vote Leave poster which had promised £350 million a week for the health service and which, he said, the "public want to see honoured".
His call was widely supported both inside the NHS[133][134] and outside it, ranging from Brexit-supporting Jacob Rees-Mogg[135][136] to the Remain-supporting general secretary of the TUC.
[153][154] Prime Minister Boris Johnson was reported to have put Stevens personally[155] and the NHS generally ( as against the private sector or the Department of Health and Social Care) in charge of designing and managing the national COVID-19 vaccination rollout.
[170][171] Stevens also told MPs in January 2021 that COVID-19 could become a "much more treatable disease" over the next six to 18 months, raising the hope of returning to a "much more normal future".
Keeping coronavirus under control means we avoid displacing other treatments which our nurses, doctor and therapists desperately want to sustain.
[184] During this period he appeared at a number of televised 10 Downing Street COVID press conferences alongside the Prime Minister - on 5 November,[185] 2 December, 7 January (at which he accused 'COVID deniers' of lying),[186] 26 January, and 15 February 2021 (where he reported the NHS had successfully met its target of offering all high risk patients their first vaccination).
[218] He has championed NHS work to cut sugary drinks and junk food from hospitals,[219] and suggested there should be a national sugar tax.
"[223][224] In 2020 Stevens appointed an expert panel to develop a route map to decarbonise the health sector,[225] and the NHS subsequently pledged to become the world's first healthcare system to cut carbon emissions to net zero.
[226][227] Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, welcomed the NHS's global leadership in doing so.
[228] Stevens has argued that the NHS – as the largest employer in Britain – is an 'anchor institution' in many local communities, and so needs to "get more creative in developing staffing and clinical models that will enable us to sustain services and consider second and third order effects in terms of jobs and economic impact and social cohesion".
[235][236] The official citation said "Labour, Coalition and Conservative administrations have all turned to him to fundamentally shape the Health Service's strategic direction for the better.