NHS to provide 100,000 in-house tests a day to combat staff shortages

The NHS is ramping up its in-house testing to 100,000 a day amid fears over staff absence due to the ailing Test and Trace system.

Hospitals have been given until the end of October to roughly double their capacity from current numbers.

While acute patients will remain at the front of the queue for in-hospital "Pillar One" tests, The Telegraph understands that NHS bosses are keen to increase the number of doctors and nurses offered quick turnaround tests using hospital labs.

This is to take them out of the chaotic "Pillar Two" community testing system, where a shortage of tests and long delays for results risk forcing clinical staff to isolate for days while awaiting the all-clear.

At the height of the coronavirus pandemic, 25 per cent of doctors were off work because they were either sick or in isolation, according to the Royal College of Physicians.

NHS England says that peak absence across all staff was 10 per cent.

NHS Test and Trace, led by Baroness Harding (seen being questioned about testing by MPs in the video below), has faced severe criticism for failing to prepare for the surge in demand for tests in September caused by the return of schools and the increase in non-Covid seasonal respiratory viruses. At one point last week, it was revealed that there were no tests available in all 10 of the worst virus hotspots in England.

Under the ramped-up "Pillar One" system, 96 NHS labs working as part of 26 regional networks will offer the 100,000 daily tests to patients and staff.

It was reported on Tuesday that the Department of Health, via NHS Test and Trace, will fund the increase, but that trusts will have to pay for any additional tests over the new capacity target themselves. The health service currently has a "planned capacity" of 49,000 test a day, but on some days last week completed around 55,000.

The additional NHS tests will be counted as part of Boris Johnson's target to lay on 500,000 a day nationally by the end of October.

A Department of Health spokesman said: "There is significant funding for NHS labs to increase capacity, and there are tests available for NHS staff and patients who need them.

"Since the beginning of this pandemic, we have prioritised testing for health and care workers, with staff in hospitals able to access a test through their trust, and the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, has made clear in Parliament that the top priority for testing are those in acute clinical care."

Under a "priority list" for England's overall testing strategy, published on Monday, the first in line will be those receiving acute clinical care and the staff administering it.

Second will be care home residents and workers, while other NHS staff, such as GPs, will be third. Targeted testing for outbreak management and surveillance is fourth, and teachers with symptoms fifth. After that come members of the public with symptoms.

There are currently 1,319 patients in hospital with Covid-19 in England (see graphic below), of whom 181 are on ventilators. The number has doubled over the past fortnight, and planners expect the increase in admissions to follow that of cases after a lag of roughly two weeks.

"The evidence shows that the virus is spreading to other, more vulnerable age groups as we have seen in France and Spain where this has led to increased hospital admissions and sadly more deaths," Boris Johnson said in Parliament.

Swift turnarounds of test results are crucial to prevent hospitals becoming jammed, as patients with possible symptoms of Covid-19 have to be isolated until they are given an all-clear, taking up huge amounts of space.