First NHS trust to run covid Lighthouse lab

Newcastle Hospitals Foundation Trust, along with Newcastle City Council, will run a new Lighthouse lab in Gateshead, which will aim to deliver 80,000 tests per day by the end of March.

There has been substantial controversy over the fact that Lighthouse labs, established to process large numbers of covid tests, are run by the private sector, in a testing “pillar” separate from the NHS lab network.

There have been calls — particularly from pathologists and biomedical scientists — for greater testing in the NHS and for the pillar two network to be integrated into, and coordinated by, NHS labs.

The Newcastle trust hopes to open the lab, which will create 1,100 jobs, before Christmas before ramping up its testing capacity in 2021.

It will be run by a strategic oversight group which will include the trust, council, public health teams, local universities and industry.

The Department of Health and Social Care also today announced it would open another Lighthouse Lab in Bracknell, which will aim to process 40,000 tests per day by February.

Demand has been outstripping supply of tests in recent weeks, sparking huge criticism of the testing programme.

It comes after commercial labs appealed to the NHS for help at the end of August as they were struggling with a “surge in demand,” and the testing capacity shortages currently being seen across the country.

A public sector-run Lighthouse lab is also being developed by Public Health Wales, in Newport.

Results reporting from the Gateshead lab will be integrated into the NHS Test and Trace system and electronic care records, so they are immediately available to patients who have been tested, as well as public health and clinical staff.

Martin Wilson, chief operating officer of Newcastle Hospitals FT, who will serve as chief executive of the new Gateshead lab, told HSJ the majority of the new jobs will be entry level and recruitment will be aimed at disadvantaged communities.

He said: “The important thing is we are playing a part in increasing testing capacity across the NHS.”

Newcastle FT will also run a separate new “innovation lab” which will develop new approaches for the next stage of covid science.

Trust chief executive Dame Jackie Daniel added: “We know that testing and tracing will continue to be a key pillar of the national strategy to protect the NHS and save lives, as well as supporting the economy.

“Our integrated covid hub will be a major step in ensuring we are in the strongest position to deal with the ongoing pressures of the pandemic.”

There are Lighhouse labs in Milton Keynes, Alderley Park in Cheshire, Cambridge and Glasgow; another is due to open soon in Charnwood, Loughborough.