Northampton lab volunteers to test county's GP staff for Covid-19 "at least once a week"

A Northampton lab is offering GP surgeries across the county free Covid-19 testing for staff "up to twice a week" to help protect patients.

20/30 Labs, based in Brackmills, says it has the means to test up to 300 healthcare staff a day for coronavirus and can get results back to them within 24 hours.

The lab is offering the tests as part of a £1,000,000 volunteering effort by an Oxford scientist, Mike Fischer CBE, who has enlisted labs across the country by setting up the Covid-19 Volunteer Testing Network.20/30's managing director Zoé Laughton said: "We are very proud to be able to offer this service to the GP practices in Northamptonshire.

"We are already approaching GPs to offer this testing and hope to expand."

20/30 will be posting kits to GPs who can then test staff and arrange for the swabs to be delivered to a secure fridge outside the lab in Brackmills.

Zoe says the lab can test up to 300 swabs a day and hopes to offer tests up to twice a week for staff to keep them updated on their condition and protect patients.

Zoe said: "It has to be done regularly so GPs and staff can be sure of patient safety. We're able to return these results in 24 hours."

Although many hospitals, including NGH, are now regularly testing staff for the virus, GP surgeries have not been offered government-sponsored tests.

It has led to the creation of the Covid-19 Volunteer Testing Network by Mike Fischer CBE, who has pitched in £1m of his own money to enlist labs who can test healthcare workers for free.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper when you do your weekly shop.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you