More private Lighthouse Labs on the way

The NHS Test and Trace service could currently do 300,000 test a day through all existing labs, though it is still only filling about a third of this capacity, according to the latest data.

By October, the UK government aims to have the capacity for half a million swab tests, according to a target announced earlier in the month by government, and confirmed today in an NHS Test and Trace business plan.

HSJ understands it will be met both through NHS labs increasing testing capacity, and the private sector building and operating more labs as part of the Lighthouse network. There are now five labs in the Lighthouse group, including the latest in Newport, Wales, which opened last week.

They are operated by various private and academic partnerships.

HSJ understands there have been talks in recent weeks about some NHS trusts themselves operating large Lighthouse-style labs, with substantial throughput, as part of the capacity expansion, but progress does not appear to have been made on this.

Meanwhile, NHSTT is also planning to increase the number of local testing sites in urban locations and “make it easy for GPs to order or provide tests and have testing stock availabe in community settings where possible”. Most people in towns and cities should have access to a test “within 30 minutes’ walk by the end of October”, the business plan says.

The service is pushing to expand testing among asymptomatic people with the target of “an average of at least 150,000 asymptomatic tests per day by September”. It sees the best way to achieve this is by “testing around any clusters or outbreaks, so that we can find further cases and stop further transmission”.

Meanwhile, NHSTT has said it expects to launch a contact tracing app before the winter, which “will enable anyone with a smartphone to engage with every aspect of the NHS Test and Trace service, from ordering a test through to accessing the right guidance and advice”.

Contact tracing capacity will be expanded in local authority public health teams and Public Health England’s health protection teams to enhance their role in contact tracing “in more complex settings or involving vulnerable people”.