Trust to test all 9,000 staff for covid within five days

East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust will need to test around 9,000 people, including those working for its facilities and estates subsidiary. The only exemptions will be staff who will be away from the workplace for the next 14 days, such as those on maternity or long-term sick leave. It is not thought any other trust has tried to compress widespread staff testing into such a short time.

The trust has increasingly been identified as an outlier in covid deaths, with 9.5 per cent of the national total in the week to 10 July. Over the last month, it has had more than twice as many inpatient deaths from covid as the next highest trust (70 compared to 31 at Pennine Acute Trust).

The trust had already started a phased programme of testing asymptomatic staff but it is now rapidly accelerating this, because asymptomatic staff could spread the disease to other staff and potentially patients unknowingly. Anyone who has been in close contact with an asymptomatic person who tests positive will normally have to self isolate.

The move follows the trust asking NHS England for support with infection control and prevention. Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group has also offered help, and the situation is being closely monitored by the Care Quality Commission.

Chief medical officer Rebecca Martin said: “It’s important that our patients and staff have confidence that we are doing all we can to keep them, and those close to them, safe while they are in our care whether they being treated for covid or using other services at the trust.

“The combination of this testing programme to help identify and isolate any asymptomatic staff and ensuring the highest possible standards of infection prevention and control are critical to this.”

The incubation period of covid is thought to be about five days with people being infectious for two days before symptoms show. But some will not develop any symptoms at all.

A major outbreak among staff at Hillingdon Hospital was thought to be due to a nurse who did not realise they had coronavirus infecting 16 others during a training event – emphasising the challenges of stopping person-to-person transmission in a hospital environment.