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Just 15 Royal Stoke workers are being tested for coronavirus each day - and the tests only started on Tuesday!
A drive-thru swab station has been set up in the hospital grounds.

The Government is today coming under increasing pressure to test more NHS staff for coronavirus - after it emerged just 15 tests-a-day are being carried out at the Royal Stoke.

Testing finally started at the Royal Stoke University Hospital on Tuesday, March 31.

It is so far limited to critical care and A&E staff who are currently in self-isolation after displaying symptoms and being sent home in the past five days.

They have been asked to return to work to provide a swab at a drive-thru testing station in the hospital's grounds in an attempt to get them back to work sooner. The result of each test takes 48-hours to come back.

Unison branch secretary Stewart Robinson hopes the number of tests will increase.

He said: “We want to increase the number of tests but we are guided by the Government and it is a waiting game.

“Fifteen tests-a-day is very small when we have 11,000 staff. I have asked the question as to why it is 15 and I am told that the Government tells us how many tests we have and we don’t want to put them all on one day so we spread it out over the week. Hopefully the number of tests will increase each week.

Simple00 ...but the government said there is a global shortage.

The government say that there is a global shortage of swabs and reagents but are greatly ramping up testing since the weekend .....hmmm

I am confused....is this a contradiction ?

Jordan....thanks for your first ncyt post.

Anyone else looking forward to the 5pm coronavirus interview ?

Good afternoon everyone.
In the past week, we have seen a rapid escalation of cases of COVID-19.

More cases and deaths have now been reported in the rest of the world than in China.

We have also seen a rapid escalation in social distancing measures, like closing schools and cancelling sporting events and other gatherings.

But we have not seen an urgent enough escalation in testing, isolation and contact tracing – which is the backbone of the response.

Social distancing measures can help to reduce transmission and enable health systems to cope.

Handwashing and coughing into your elbow can reduce the risk for yourself and others.

But on their own, they are not enough to extinguish this pandemic. It’s the combination that makes the difference.

As I keep saying, all countries must take a comprehensive approach.

But the most effective way to prevent infections and save lives is breaking the chains of transmission. And to do that, you must test and isolate.

You cannot fight a fire blindfolded. And we cannot stop this pandemic if we don’t know who is infected.

We have a simple message for all countries: test, test, test.

Test every suspected case.

https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19---16-march-2020

Jacksdad - the testing is not government policy.... it was advised by WHO !

Jacksdad - i also think the government have done a truly marvellous job with most things BUT i'm afraid that one of the most important things they have NOT done is the Test,Test,Test part

Peter Openshaw of Imperial college comment highlights if any problem sourcing :-

But the PM faces mounting fury over the failure to get anywhere near the levels being carried out in countries like Germany - which is carrying out more than 70,000 a day, while the UK is still well below 10,000.

Cabinet minister Michael Gove blamed a global shortage of chemicals at a press conference last night, saying Mr Johnson was taking personal control of trying to source the material.
'escalating demand' the 'reagents' for tests 'are being manufactured and delivered to the NHS'.

One of the government's own scientific advisers, Peter Openshaw of Imperial college, said in an interview last night that he 'wasn't aware' of the problem. 'As far as I know there isn't a great shortage of supply,' he said.

Meanwhile, there are complaints that logistical blunders are hampering efforts to increase capacity. The 'centralised' approach by Public Health England (PHE) meant that labs have been left 'sitting on their hands', while Germany has authorised any institution with the right capability to get on with checks.

shoudaboughtmore ----- make no mistake.....we have the very best !!

WHY ARE PEOPLE BLAMING NOVACYT !!

Mr Neophytou said: ‘Even if we delivered ten times the number of kits to the Government, the limiting factor is still capacity of testing and that comes more and more under strain if laboratory staff go into self-isolation.

‘A huge lab could also be brought below capacity if you do not have the consumables and instruments you need to run the tests.

‘We are supplying 21 hospitals in the UK. Some of those serve other hospitals across the country. Some do not have the internal capacity to do these tests.

‘So the number of testing kits is not truly representative of what the actual testing capacity of the country is at the moment.’

Novacyt said it is currently supplying 21 NHS hospitals with Covid-19 tests, which are processed by experts in labs.

It is in discussions with PHE about providing more tests, Mr Neophytou said. However, orders for its kit – which can return TEST RESULTS IN 2 HOURS - HAVE SURGED INTERNATIONALLY, with regulators in the US, Argentina, the Philippines and Indonesia all fast-tracking the product for use by medical professionals.

Wecome Roller....this is a snippet from the paper which i will bring to your attention
(stated by Novacyt marketing manager )

Mr Neophytou said: ‘Even if we delivered ten times the number of kits to the Government, the limiting factor is still capacity of testing and that comes more and more under strain if laboratory staff go into self-isolation.

Whamboy ... We are selling as many tests as we are making....it matters not one iota who we sell them too !
Great bit of publicity for us too.... going up i think !

Partial excerpt:
Mr Johnson says he is exasperated. Welcome to how the nation feels!

No10 blames a global shortage of kits. Yet it is wilfully perverse that a Southampton-based company is churning out lorry-loads of swabs and shipping them around the world, including to India and the Middle East, while the UK Government dithers.

What in blazes is stopping the Department of Health requisitioning this kit? A conveyor belt of ministers tells us coronavirus is like fighting a war. Shouldn't they begin to act like it?

Confusion also reigns with 'game-changing' antibody tests to show if someone's immune and safe to return to work. Millions were supposed to be ready last week. Now it could be months.

This is a shocking state of affairs. The Government must appoint as a matter of urgency a dedicated minister for testing – someone given carte blanche to crack the controversy.

Could it be a captain of industry? Perhaps, if the post lasts only a few weeks. After all, during the Second World War, Lord Beaverbrook played a major role as Winston Churchill's Minister of Aircraft Production.

Or a leading political figure? Jeremy Hunt fits the bill.

He's a successful businessman and, as the longest-serving Health Secretary, knows his way around Whitehall. The ex-Conservative leadership candidate commands respect.

It's not as if the Government can't be decisive. Look at the 4,000-bed specialist hospital that has been built in London's Docklands in just days – the fifth largest in the world. It is a glowing example of Britain's can-do spirit.

But this gumption must extend to testing. Until screening is routine, Britain will remain locked down – harming national morale.

Once it is commonplace, the country can finally, gratefully, begin taking steps on the path to a normal life.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8174007/DAILY-MAIL-COMMENT-testing-shambles-unforgivable-ministers-act.html

Looks like the government are not telling it as it is......hmmm !

Part 3:
Novacyt said it has sold £1.4million worth of tests to India alone, while countries in the Middle East have bought another £1.6million worth.

It is ramping up production with the help of Manchester-based Yourgene and says it will soon be capable of producing four million tests per month.

Novacyt is one of several organisations working with health authorities to roll out wider testing for the coronavirus.

Last week the Government said it was also working with dozens of universities, research institutes and companies to create three new ‘hub laboratories’ to supplement testing already being carried out.

Test makers Randox and Thermo Fisher are involved in these efforts, as well as Amazon, Royal Mail, Boots and the Wellcome Trust.

Universities have donated testing machines and volunteered staff to work in the new facilities, with hopes it will help ramp up the UK testing regime.

There are separate efforts as well to develop so-called rapid tests that do not need to be carried out in laboratories, although PHE is still reviewing these and has not yet recommended them for widespread use.

The World Health Organisation has called on countries to ‘test, test, test’, saying it is the best way to track the coronavirus outbreak and help bring down infection rates.

Cabinet office minister Michael Gove said the Government was increasing the amount of testing.

But during a daily Press conference, he admitted: ‘One of the constraints on our capacity to increase testing overall is the supply of the specific reagents, the specific chemicals that are needed in order to make sure that tests are reliable.’

Last night the Department of Health suggested the tests provided by Novacyt were not as efficient as those being offered by other companies.

They also claimed that the tests wouldn’t avoid the issue of the shortage of chemical reagents, as highlighted by the Government.

Part 2:
This included staff available to carry out testing as well as the need for chemicals, he said. But last night a Public Health England (PHE) spokesman claimed Novacyt was not providing more tests because it was ‘not able to offer the guaranteed continuity of supply we were looking for’.

Ministers are battling to increase testing to 25,000 patients per day by mid-April, but figures remained below 10,000 per day last weekend.

Mr Neophytou said: ‘Even if we delivered ten times the number of kits to the Government, the limiting factor is still capacity of testing and that comes more and more under strain if laboratory staff go into self-isolation.

‘A huge lab could also be brought below capacity if you do not have the consumables and instruments you need to run the tests.

‘We are supplying 21 hospitals in the UK. Some of those serve other hospitals across the country. Some do not have the internal capacity to do these tests.

‘So the number of testing kits is not truly representative of what the actual testing capacity of the country is at the moment.’

Novacyt said it is currently supplying 21 NHS hospitals with Covid-19 tests, which are processed by experts in labs.

It is in discussions with PHE about providing more tests, Mr Neophytou said. However, orders for its kit – which can return test results in two hours – have surged internationally, with regulators in the US, Argentina, the Philippines and Indonesia all fast-tracking the product for use by medical professionals.

Part 1:
UK labs 'can't cope' with mass coronavirus testing, meaning millions of British-made swabbing kits are being sold OVERSEASBy Matt Oliver for the Daily MailA British firm producing millions of pounds worth of coronavirus tests is selling most of them abroad as the UK doesn’t have enough laboratories to use them.
Novacyt has made £17.8million selling its testing equipment to more than 80 countries via its Southampton-based subsidiary Primerdesign.But only £1million worth has been sold to the UK, raising questions about why Britain is not buying more at a time when there are global shortages of tests.When asked why the UK had not bought more kits and ramped up testing more quickly, Novacyt group marketing manager Achilleas Neophytou claimed UK laboratory capacity was a ‘limiting factor’.

Topic closed..

Apologies.. .I was meant to reply to islandgirl.
Topic closed now !