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Fury as staff denied test even though it’s available
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THE chief executive of a major London hospital claims NHS chiefs are blocking medical staff from being tested for coronavirus, a leaked memo has revealed.
Doctors and nurses at King’s College Hospital have been told they cannot carry out the tests – even though they have the ability – until all the nation’s hospitals are ready to do the same.
A senior consultant warned it was ‘beyond comprehension’ that hospitals in London, which are worst affected by the virus, are being stopped from testing staff.
The whistleblower claimed it had put doctors and nurses who may have been exposed to the virus into a ‘state of anxiety’ over whether they risked infecting patients.
The decision also leaves hospitals short of staff as they are forced to stay at home for up to 14 days if other members of their household have symptoms. Testing would allow those with negative results to return to work. In Scotland, the First Minister has insisted ‘key workers’ will be tested.
According to minutes of a meeting of hospital bosses at King’s College Hospital on Wednesday evening, chief executive Professor Clive Kay warned that NHS chiefs did not want testing of staff to begin until it was available across the country.
The internal memo obtained by the Mail states: ‘Clive made it very clear that at present we should not be testing staff for Covid-19.
‘The reason is that nationally there is not capacity to test all staff that will require testing.’
A separate leaked email shows that doctors at the hospital were told this week they were testing too many patients. A senior consultant at the hospital said the decision to delay testing until it was available nationwide put staff and patients at risk, adding: ‘The capacity to substantially upscale testing is already in place.
‘Trust chief executives are under huge pressure not to test staff or public. This is completely against all infectious disease principles.’
The consultant said staff swab every patient who arrives for comparably minor MRSA bacterial infections, but must admit people without discovering whether they have coronavirus.
This means they do not know whether to segregate them or doctors and nurses need to use personal protective equipment when treating them. The medic added: ‘We should test every admission.’
The doctor also warned that staff with mild symptoms were anxious because they could not check whether they had coronavirus, adding: ‘If I have a bit of a cough, but know my hospital is falling apart, do I self-isolate for 14 days?
‘Do I infect the hospital? Do I stay at home and let people die because I am not there?’
Boris Johnson wants to increase the number of tests per day from 10,000 to 25,000 and to prioritise testing NHS staff. But the British Medical Association said members claimed this wasn’t happening.
For Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon said: ‘Key workers will be getting tested to make sure they don’t isolate unnecessarily and that we can keep that workforce as intact as possible.’
BMA Scotland chairman Dr Lewis Morrison said: ‘We will need every pair of hands we can get.
‘We now need to see the details of how staff can access testing as soon as possible, to minimise the number of NHS staff who would otherwise be self-isolating.’
‘Do I stay at home and let people die?’