Mass testing centres should be fully accredited or absorbed into the NHS, institute says
A professional body for biomedical staff has called for mass testing laboratories to be properly vetted and regularly reviewed, after a private centre reportedly issued incorrect Covid-19 test results.
The call follows the suspension of the private Immensa laboratory in Wolverhampton after errors in Covid-19 test results reportedly affected an estimated 43,000 people in England and Wales.
“The errors that occurred in Wolverhampton were avoidable,” said the Institute of Biomedical Science in a position statement on 10 November. “They affect the public’s confidence in healthcare testing services and leave patients believing their test results lack importance, leading to the diagnostics workforce feeling undermined.”
The institute said it was “vital that mass testing centres doing Covid-19 testing meet the same minimum requirements as other diagnostic laboratory services in the UK”. Specifically, it said that any laboratory carrying out Covid-19 testing should be accredited by the UK Accreditation Service, which assesses the competence of such services.
It added that there should be “appropriate numbers” of biomedical and clinical scientists registered with the Health and Care Professions Council, the statutory regulator for health professionals, to “supervise and deliver services during all hours that a laboratory is operating”.
“In the case of a mass testing centre like Immensa’s, this means 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
If the application of such standards is not feasible for mass testing centres, the institute advises that they should be “absorbed into a local NHS laboratory diagnostic service network for management and quality assurance”.
“Now that we are nearly two years into the pandemic, the Institute of Biomedical Science believes that the NHS diagnostic services can begin increasing testing capacity to absorb the work of some Covid-19 mass testing centres in the long term,” it said.
Strong criticism
The institute’s statement follows strong criticism of the government’s approach to centralised testing and its decision to award contracts to the private sector instead of relying on the public sector.
Earlier this month, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee condemned what it described as the “muddled”, “overstated” and “eye-wateringly expensive” NHS Test and Trace system set up during the pandemic.
A UK Health Security Agency spokesperson said: “All laboratories are required to complete a rigorous operational, quality and technical readiness process prior to providing testing capacity to NHS Test and Trace.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “Due diligence is carried out for all government contracts and appointments, and we take these checks extremely seriously. The Immensa laboratory in Wolverhampton passed an independent quality audit overseen by NHS Test and Trace and is in the early stages of the process for UK Accreditation Service accreditation.
“We will confirm any next steps and reviews once the UK Health Security Agency has completed its investigation into this issue.”
Research Professional News has approached Immensa for comment.