When it comes to NHS colleagues going over and above during the COVID-19 pandemic, Lewis Samways-Head is definitely on the list.
Lewis is not only a paramedic, working for South East Coast Ambulance Service, but he is also helping Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust (KCHFT) with the vaccination programme, doing temporary, or Bank shifts.
The 22-year-old said he wanted to do his bit in the fight against Coronavirus. He was also keen to work with KCHFT, having done Bank shifts for a year, back in 2017, at the trust’s Tonbridge Cottage Hospital, where he started off as a healthcare assistant and later became an associate practitioner on the therapy-led unit.
Lewis has spent the past three years studying, on a paramedic science degree course with Canterbury Christ Church University, at its Medway campus. He qualified back in April, in the midst of the pandemic.
He did his first shift at a KCHFT-run hub for health and social care staff in Aylesham, this week (Tuesday, 19 January) and is due to do a second shift at another site for health and social care colleagues, later this week.
He said: “After finishing my degree, I went straight into a full time job with the ambulance service. I’ve been treating patients who have COVID-19, so I’ve seen it first-hand.
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“I believe vaccinating is our only way out of this and so I wanted to do my bit to help. The KCHFT Bank system offers two hour slots, so I can fit those in around my ambulance shift pattern.
“At Aylesham I did a lot of the consent work and looked after colleagues for the 15 minutes that they had to sit and wait afterwards. I am qualified to give the vaccine too. I’ll go wherever needed and do whatever is needed.”
The paramedic’s proud mum Anna Head, who is a PA to the deputy chief operating officer at KCHFT, said: “He had a positive first experience with the trust, so was happy to return to help out once again.”