Labour calls for routine testing of all health staff

The Labour Party is calling for routine testing of all staff in the NHS and social care sectors to help minimise transmission of coronavirus.

The party’s Shadow Health and Social Care Secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, is calling for testing to expanded beyond symptomatic carriers, so that all staff are regularly tested once a week.

The Department of Health and Social Care said on 4 April  that it would be testing critical key workers regularly once widespread testing became available. On 29 April, NHS England confirmed that it would be extending regular testing to asymptomatic staff. However, despite this, universal staff testing has yet to be implemented.

The government’s current testing strategy involves testing NHS workers who have symptoms of the virus. Some trusts are already doing routine staff testing, but it is not currently not required across the board.

Labour’s call for routine testing follows a study which suggested that a fifth of coronavirus infections among hospital patients and almost nine in 10 infections among healthcare workers may have been caught in hospital. A separate study from Imperial College London suggested that weekly testing of healthcare workers is ‘estimated to reduce their contribution to transmission by 25-33 per cent’.

Ashworth said: “Regular testing of all NHS staff must now be an urgent priority. Weekly testing of all healthcare workers reduces the spread of the virus and helps protect NHS staff and patients. Eventually resetting the NHS to continue treating covid and non-covid patients is going to have to take priority. This should include putting in place infection control measures to make sure patients can continue to safely receive their care, and routine testing of all staff should be a part of this.”