What the first day at work like for Simon Stevens?

“I saw Simon Stevens on his first day in the NHS”, he said. One of my joys is visiting customer sites and meeting the people making healthcare work. On this day I was taking photos of the kiosks that allow patients to check into their outpatient appointment, then register for Patients Know Best to see their medical records. Above me, a volunteer at the hospital watched with curiosity as I must have been the only person who was riveted by the kiosks. 

Apparently, before his retirement this volunteer had worked in the NHS for many years, including the one Simon Stevens joined in his first job in the NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme in 1988.

“He was dressed so smart and he carried a brand new briefcase. In every meeting he took copious notes. He didn’t speak much, and only after others, as he listened. But he had so obviously prepared so much for every meeting.” Everyone liked him, apparently, and he made himself useful.

Simon Stevens became the CEO of NHS England in 2014.

I often think of his first day in 1998 and what people’s first day is like in PKB. Did people know back then guess what Simon would go on to do for the NHS? How did his colleagues treat him?