100,000 daily tests target is ‘jam tomorrow’
THE Health Secretary’s promise to dramatically ramp up coronavirus tests to 100,000 a day has been thrown into doubt after NHS leaders told him the targets were “jam tomorrow”.
Health bosses told Matt Hancock yesterday that they would not be able to ramp up testing to required levels without significant help from private and academic laboratories.
Ministers insisted they were on track to hit Mr Hancock’s target as they unveiled major partnerships with pharmaceutical companies and universities to plug the gap in testing. The Government has faced heavy criticism in recent weeks as its testing programme continues to lag far behind nations such as Germany and South Korea.
In response, the Health Secretary last week launched a five-pillar strategy to increase testing to 100,000 every day by the end of this month.
However the third pillar – ramping up antibody tests to tell people if they have already had the disease – appeared to collapse yesterday as the Government’s head of coronavirus testing revealed that the tests were not now expected to be available before the end-of-month deadline. And in a frank conference call with health managers, academics and industry leaders, the Health Secretary was told that NHS labs were struggling to meet their targets for antigen tests, which would help combat the spread of infection and allow key front-line workers to perform lifesaving duties and remain safe.
In slides shown during the presentation, NHS leaders warned they were facing a severe shortage of “consumables” – crucial chemicals and swabs needed to perform the tests. “Global competition for PCR consumables
including the NHS has dried up labs’ capacity to source consumables,” the slide said.
It added that NHS labs are experiencing “immense frustration at headlines, jam tomorrow and inability to deliver due to supply chain constraints”. The phrase “jam tomorrow” is derived from Lewis Carroll’s book Alice Through the Looking Glass, and refers to promises never fulfilled.
Another NHS slide shown during the presentation read: “Staff have pulled out all the stops to deliver the service.
“We have the people, we have the platforms to achieve 10k per region target but not the specific consumables.
“We need industry to provide us with sufficient laboratory consumables across all our platforms.”
NHS regions have been set a target of 10,000 tests a day to help hit the national 100,000 figure. Graphs shown during the presentation, however, showed that without significant help from the private sector, NHS labs in the South East are projected to perform only 2,480 tests a day by the end of this month.
Department of Health figures showed that 14,682 tests were conducted nationwide on April 7, slightly more than the 14,006 conducted the day before.
Asked on Tuesday who would “carry the can” if the target were missed, Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, stressed it was Mr Hancock’s target.
Edward Argar, the health minister, said yesterday Mr Hancock was “determined that we are going to meet that target”, adding: “He knows how important it is, he’s committed to it, as is the whole Government. We are working flat out to make sure we meet that target.”
During yesterday’s conference call, industry leaders and universities indicated their willingness to help. An official call to action for private laboratories to offer their facilities and crucial reagents will be launched today.
It was also announced that a new coronavirus testing laboratory is to be set up at Cambridge University in collaboration with pharmaceutical giants Astrazeneca and Glaxosmithkline that aims to process 30,000 tests per day.
The Government said the firms were exploring “alternative chemical reagents” for test kits in order to help overcome current supply shortages.
But Stephen Toope, the university’s vice-chancellor, told BBC that the facility may not be fully operational until May.
A so-called super lab has already been opened in Milton Keynes in partnership with the US life sciences company Thermo Fisher, with two more planned to open in the coming days.
The Francis Crick Institute is also planning to open a major testing facility in partnership with University College London Hospitals.