COVID-19 vaccination hubs across King’s Health Partners

Learn more about how colleagues are coming together to distribute COVID-19 vaccines to our local communities.

Researchers across King’s Health Partners have made significant contributions to fighting COVID-19, through galvanising as a scientific community and supporting research efforts against the virus. 8 December 2020 marked a historic day for King’s Health Partners in the fight against COVID-19. Both Guy’s and St Thomas’ and King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trusts distributed their first COVID-19 jabs to patients.

The NHS has made an excellent start to rolling out COVID-19 vaccines. Staff are doing an incredible job to deliver what it is the largest vaccination programme in its history. A tremendous number of colleagues across King’s Health Partners have come together to help coordinate vaccine delivery across our six boroughs.

There are four vaccination hospital hubs across King’s Health Partners sites, and one at Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, who following final approval of the merger in December, will be joining our partnership from 1 February 2021.

Patients aged 80 and above who are already attending hospital as an outpatient, and those who were being discharged home after a hospital stay, were among the first to receive the jab in our partner organisations.

Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust was visited by the Prime Minister Boris Johnson when they became one of the very first NHS trusts to begin vaccinating patients against COVID-19.

The Prime Minister met Lyn Wheeler, 81, who was the first to receive the jab by staff at the vaccination centre at Guy’s Hospital.

She said:

I was very happy to take part in something that I feel is very valuable. This is a very important moment.

Lyn, from Bromley in south east London, hopes that having the vaccination will encourage other people to have it too. She said:

We can’t keep staying in our houses and not meeting our loved ones. I hope many, many people around the world will benefit from the vaccine.

Kenneth Coley, 98, from south London, became one of the first patients at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust to receive the vaccine. He said:

I’m very fortunate to have been chosen to have the vaccine, I thought I was too old! If you want to fight the virus you have to have to get vaccinated.

Asked whether he was nervous about being one of the first patients to receive it, he said:

 No. I’d be stupid not to have it.

Kenneth was also given a round of applause by ward staff after receiving the first dose of the vaccine.

Ann Russell, 88, from Bromley was the first patient at the Princess Royal University Hospital (PRUH) to be vaccinated. Ann said:

I was very happy to be vaccinated today. Seeing me get it might just encourage others to get it too. Hopefully, the vaccine will make life better for all of us.

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust is beginning the roll out of the COVID-19 vaccine to NHS colleagues.

To find out more information on COVID-19 vaccines in your organisation, please visit your partner organisation’s intranet sites.

For more about COVID-19 at your partner organisation, visit getting the right information - COVID-19.