[5] 1952–1959: He attended King Edward VI College, Stourbridge, Worcestershire where he spent four years in the sixth form.

Kennedy was the BBC's Reith lecturer (on the subject of "Unmasking Medicine") in 1980[7] and hosted many editions of After Dark on Channel 4.

[9] In 1997, he took part in a UK Government inquiry that gave cautious approval to xenotransplantation (the use of animal-to-human transplants), and in 1998, was a member of the committee that recommended pet passports.

In October 2009, Kennedy became chair of the King's Fund’s inquiry into the quality of general practice in England, replacing Niall Dickson.

In 2010, he was elected inaugural Vice-President of the College of Medicine,[14] an organisation set up to bring together patients and clinicians on an equal footing.

[15] Several commentators, writing in The Guardian[16][17] and The British Medical Journal[18][19][20][21] claim that this organisation is simply a re-branding of Prince Charles' alternative medicine lobbying group the Foundation for Integrated Health.