Project to increase coronavirus testing under government contract

A PROJECT launched by an entrepreneur from Henley to help small laboratories provide coronavirus testing for frontline healthcare staff has signed a multi-million pound contract with the government.

Mike Fischer founded the Covid-19 Volunteer Testing Network with the aim of recruiting volunteer labs across the UK to carry out thousands of tests a day for GPs and NHS workers.

The project, which was launched last month, aimed to build an emergency volunteer network of labs willing to convert to covid-19 testing to supplement the government’s existing facilities.

It now has the backing of the Department of Health and Social Care, which will fund tens of thousands of tests under the contract.

Mr Fischer, 69, wants the country to urgently expand its covid-19 testing capacity for frontline workers and originally donated £1million of seed funding to get the project going.

The government’s support will now make it easier for small labs to convert to covid-19 testing, allowing capacity to rapidly increase.

Mr Fischer said: “We believe that it is vital to test even asymptomatic frontline healthcare workers regularly. Even people who do not show symptoms may be carriers of the virus, and transmit the infection to others.”

There are thousands of labs in the UK with the right equipment and expertise to run these tests but they are currently not being used.

The Covid-19 Volunteer Testing Network has quickly expanded testing capacity across the UK. It is a distributed network of smaller local labs, working parallel to the government’s centralised testing program.

The network now has six labs live testing hundreds of healthcare workers each day across 50 GP surgeries.

More than 20 more labs are currently in the pipeline and expected to go live in this month and next.

The government’s funding will substantially increase the number of labs for which it is viable to convert to testing, by helping to fund purchases of necessary equipment and consumables.

Network labs are testing health workers locally, so most are able to deliver same-day results.

Labs deliver swab kits to GP surgeries and care homes, then pick them up when they have been completed, reducing the need to drive long distances to a testing centre. This makes it easier for workers to be regularly screened and for asymptomatic cases to be identified quickly. This is vital for slowing the spread of the virus.

Mr Fischer is the director of SBL, an independent, non-profit medical research laboratory in Milton Park, Abingdon which has been converted to testing for covid-19.

It was the inspiration for the wider network.

It is now providing hundreds of tests a week to NHS staff at 18 GP practices, including the Hart and Bell surgeries in Henley, Nettlebed Surgery, Sonning Common Health Centre and Goring and Woodcote Medical Practice, and some staff in care homes, with a half-day turnaround.

These tests are giving hundreds of staff an indication of their current health status and the knowledge required to keep fulfilling these vital roles.

The Covid-19 Volunteer Testing Network is being co-ordinated on an entirely voluntary basis and is looking for further labs to join the effort.

For more information on the testing network, to join or to provide funding for the initiative, visit www.covid19-testing.org

For the full story, see next week’s Henley Standard.