Priority tests will let key NHS staff go back to work
NHS staff who are self-isolating because someone in their household has coronavirus symptoms will be tested first in the hope they can return to work.
A letter sent to hospital leaders asked them to prioritise those working in critical care, emergency departments and ambulance services.
The move came as the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) said a quarter of doctors are off work because they or someone they live with is ill.
NHS England’s chief operating officer Amanda Pritchard and medical director Professor Stephen Powis said testing will be expanded to other staff groups and key public services as capacity increases.
They wrote: “In the first instance, we ask that you identify those staff in these initial priority groups...who are unable to work because of the requirement for 14-day self-isolation. NHS organisations will use these tests to allow key staff to return to work if the index case in their home is Covid-19 free.”
Tests should be carried out as soon after symptoms develop as possible “to maximise the accuracy of the result”.
The RCP president warned that one in four doctors cannot work because someone in their house has symptoms. Professor Andrew Goddard said: “We think it’s more doctors self-isolating with family members, though there are some off sick themselves.
“This is really impacting a lot in emergency departments and London is in a much worse position than elsewhere at the moment, but it will come to other places. Birmingham is also struggling.”
Prof Goddard added that hospital wards across England “are going from normal wards to Covid wards very quickly”.
The rollout of NHS staff checks began this weekend as the UK’s testing capacity was ramped up.
Health minister Helen Whately promised that the Government recognises the importance of mass testing. She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Within the next three weeks we expect to get to 25,000 tests a day.”