Education
Richards attended the Dragon School in Oxford, and Radley College.
Richards attended the Dragon School in Oxford, and Radley College.
From 1999 to 2013 he was the National Cancer Director in the United Kingdom Government"s Department of Health. He was appointed to be the Chief Inspector of Hospitals in the Care Quality Commission on 31 May 2013. and was said by the Health Service Journal to be the third most powerful person in the English National Health Service in December 2013. Professor Sir Richards is an expert on cancer.
He was an Imperial Cancer Research Fund (Imperial Cancer Research Fund) research fellow in medical oncology at Street Bartholomew"s Hospital in London (1982-1986), and then an oncology consultant at Guy"s Hospital in London (1986-1995), becoming a Reader in 1991.
He was clinical director of Cancer Services at Guy"s and Street Thomas" Hospital in London (1991-1999) and Sainsbury Professor of Palliative Medicine at Street Thomas" Hospital from 1995. He was head of the Academic Division of Oncology at King"s College London from 1998-1999 and chair of the National Cancer Research Institute from 2006-2008.
He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians) in 1993, Fellow of the Royal College of Radiologists (FRCR) in 2000, and Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health (FFPHM, now FFPH) in 2002. He received his Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2001 and his knighthood in 2010.
He has been a trustee of the Science Museum in London and Marie Curie Cancer Care.
When interviewed by the Independent in January 2014 he said "We have seen variation. There is variation between the best hospitals we’ve seen and the ones that are struggling… What is interesting is that within an individual hospital there is variation. The maternity service might be very good but the A&East service might require improvement."
He was reckoned by the Health Service Journal to be the third most influential person in the English National Health Service in 2015.