NHS Highland puts contact tracing to the test

NHS Highland has been selected as one of three Scottish health boards to piloting contact tracing technology, writes Ellis Butcher.

The health board started testing out the software for it on Monday as part of the country’s war on COVID-19.

NHS Fife and NHS

Lanarkshire are the other two health authorities also leading the way.

Test, Trace, Isolate, Support is a public health intervention to identify cases of COVID-19, find the people they have been in close contact with, and then ask those close-contacts to self-isolate for 14 days to reduce the risk of the disease spreading.

The pilot, expected to last two weeks, will allow health boards to test out the software which contact tracers will use to collect the information that they need digitally.

NHS Highland’s Director of Public Health Dr Ken Oates said: ‘Contact tracing will form an integral part of the COVID-19 outbreak response. NHS boards have been tasked with developing interim solutions for building local contact tracing capacity ahead of the proposed national contact tracing service.’

He added: ‘NHS Highland is one of a small number of NHS boards that will be trialling the training and guidance materials developed to support the contact tracing function across Scotland.’

This week the pilot was being supported by two NHS Highland workers said Dr Oates who added the number of contact tracers will be ‘increased incrementally to meet the demand until the national contact tracing service is in place.’