Just 15 virus tests a day available at Boris hospital

ONLY 15 coronavirus tests a day were available for patients at the London hospital where an outbreak among staff has forced it to close to emergency ambulances for a week.

Hillingdon, the main hospital for Boris Johnson’s Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency, has been diverting ambulances since last Tuesday after a spread of Covid-19 among staff.

The borough now has the highest rate of new coronavirus cases in the capital. Today it can be revealed that hospital staff demanded an explanation from trust chief Sarah Tedford as to why they had not been routinely tested for the virus — only to be told there were no tests available.

A hospital spokeswoman told the Standard: “Regarding rapid testing of all staff, the trust is allocated 15 rapid tests a day by NHS nationally for use for patients.” It is understood that all staff were eventually ordered to have taken a swab test by yesterday.

The outbreak was first reported on July 3 but ambulances were not diverted until the evening of July 7.

Sources told the Standard that ambulances remained on divert today. There were 269 new coronavirus cases detected by testing in London in the most recent week, between June 28 and July 4, according to Public Health England.

This is down from 310 in the previous week, according to City Hall — a figure that was revised after an initial estimate of 300 cases that week.

The PHE data — which is now published by borough — shows that 13 boroughs saw an increased rate of confirmed cases. Hillingdon had the highest rate, of 8.2 cases per 100,000 population, followed by Redbridge on 4.9 and Hackney on 4.3.