The College of Paramedics is delighted to be able to congratulate Sammer Tang on his well-deserved awards. He received both awards at the virtual 2022 Chief Allied Health Professions Officer (CAPHO) Awards Ceremony on the 13th of October.

Sammer was awarded from a very strong shortlist of contenders for Public Health Champion and was nominated by colleagues due to his dedication in the voluntary role of Public Health Lead for the College of Paramedics, over the past six years.

Sammer then went on to win the overall CAHPO Award for 2022, awarded by the Chief Allied Health Professions Officer for England, Suzanne Rastrick. This ‘AHP of the Year 2022’ award was chosen from the winners of each of the eight award categories and decided upon for Sammer’s outstanding and unrivalled contributions.  

Sammer has led the paramedic profession towards being a fully established, integral part of the public health workforce enabling health promotion to become a recognised and valued part of the paramedic tool kit. 

The vision of the Allied Health Professions (AHP) strategic framework is that public health will be a core element of all AHP roles and that the impact of AHPs on the population's health and reducing health inequalities will be increasingly recognised. It is widely acknowledged that a large proportion of the patients that paramedics see have multiple chronic conditions, often find it hard to access healthcare and are living with deprivation and inequalities. Sammer Tang’s range of work has undoubtedly moved the profession towards health promotion being a recognised and valued part of the paramedic role. Sammer designed a survey for the paramedic profession that demonstrated that 42% had received no training in the delivery of healthy conversations/health promotion with 87% agreeing that predicting and preventing ill health is part of their professional responsibilities. Following this Sammer wrote new public health content for the pre-registration curriculum guidance for use by Higher Education Institutes in the provision of student paramedic education. He instigated and authored the ‘Introduction to Public Health’ e-learning module and went on to coordinate and co-author the entire ‘Public Health for Paramedics’ module on the Health Education England, e-Learning for Health platform.

Sammer identified and advocated that paramedics are in an ideal position to use a preventative approach with countless individuals, thus being effective and having impact at a population level. Sammer has worked collaboratively to ensure paramedics are part of a system wide multi-agency approach, committed to the individual and the provision of evidence-based care. 

Sammer has worked closely with Public Health England, the College of Paramedics, the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) and other organisations, to highlight that, paramedics can take a public health approach to each patient encounter they have, most notably through Make Every Contact Count (MECC), including health messaging, signposting and onward referral. He has also worked closely with senior leaders within the Ambulance Sector to write the Working Together with Ambulance Services to Improve Public Health and Wellbeing Consensus Statement and embed MECC into the daily practice of paramedics. He also spent time as the Acting Chair for the AACE - Public Health Sub-group leading the early work of this group from its inception and overcoming historical service boundaries for maximum impact. 

Sammer has written peer-reviewed published articles and an eLearning module on social prescribing and continues to drive the strengthening of links between paramedics and social prescribers. Sammer still works clinically as an Advanced Paramedic for the Welsh Ambulance Service and is also a Specialist Registrar in Public Health currently with the UK Health Security Agency, the only paramedic in a role of this kind. He is currently Specialist Registrar in Public Health at the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Sammer set up the College of Paramedics Public Health Special Interest Group and he is a well-known figure within the profession for his continued promotion of the seasonal influenza programmes and advocating for the COVID-19 vaccination. Sammer Tang is the paramedic profession’s public health champion for his expertise and relentless energy to prioritise the paramedic’s public health knowledge and skills development to positively impact the health and wellbeing of the population, and a worthy recipient of the recognition that these Awards bring.  

Sammer commented, "I am honoured to receive the AHP of the year and AHP public health champion awards. It is a recognition of the roles of paramedics and other AHPs in contributing towards the health and wellbeing of our population. From a profession perspective, it affirms that paramedics are an integral part of our wider AHP family and demonstrates the success of our profession in evolving from being providers of emergency care in an ambulance to valuable members across a wide range of health and social settings. #NotAllParamedicsWearGreen"
Imogen Carter, Executive Officer, College of Paramedics “Congratulations Sammer, it is a privilege to work with you. The paramedic profession and their patients will be seeing the benefits of your passion and dedication for decades to come. What a worthy overall winner!"

Liz Harris, Head of Professional Standards, College of Paramedics “When Sammer approached the College many years ago now, he stood alone in his enthusiasm for public health and his vision for the profession. He was also different, in that he didn’t come to the College asking what we could do for him, he came explaining what he could do for us, the profession and the patient. That commitment and passion has persisted ever since, and he has led the paramedic profession on a development journey of widening scope and valuable impact. Sammer truly is a worthy winner, for the years of hard work, all in a voluntary capacity, always with the patient/person at the heart of what he does.”

The College of Paramedics would like to extend congratulations to all the winners of the CAHPO Awards for 2022, in particular the North East Ambulance Service, Engagement, Diversity and Inclusion Team, and Bill Leaning, Senior Flight Paramedic and Clinical Manager for the Physician Response Unit at Barts Health NHS Trust. 

For more information on the 2022 Chief Allied Health Professions Officer Awards click here.