COVID-19 testing to support NHS staff in the workplace

The health system is working together to support NHS staff in the workplace during COVID by providing swabbing facilities for key workers including frontline staff such as PTS, AOC, Make Ready, CFR’s, fleet staff and other roles that are supporting in service delivery, who have a household member with COVID-19 like symptoms (known as an index case 0) and are therefore self-isolating for 14 days or for staff who have COVID-19 like symptoms themselves.

Staff / volunteer (or member of their household) should be tested in the first three days of the onset of COVID-19 symptoms – although testing is considered effective up until day five and staff will be referred up until this point as long as testing can be guaranteed to be undertaken by day five. No testing through this service should be undertaken after day five unless on a case by case basis and discussed with the COVID Lead.

If the swab result from the index case is negative and the staff member is symptom free, then the staff member can return to work. Please speak to your COVID Lead for guidance.

If the swab result from the index case is positive, the staff member will need to continue with their 14-day self-isolation and your COVID Lead will be there for support, along with your line manager.

In addition, the recent NHSE guidance has changed for the National Centres who will now test;

• all frontline workforce including AOC, Make Ready, CFR’s and other roles who are supporting frontline delivery with symptoms
• anyone over 65 with symptoms
• the wider family of EEAST for anyone with symptoms whose work cannot be done from home
• anyone who has symptoms of coronavirus and lives with any of those identified above
• NHS workers without symptoms.

This means anyone in one of these groups can find out whether they have the virus. Testing is most effective within three days of symptoms developing.

Individuals who meet the criteria can access a test via the national testing centres. Booking for the national testing centres is done through your COVID 19 lead, as EEAST has priority in appointments. You can do a self-referral, but you need to let your COVID lead know so you can be offered guidance and support and your test is registered with the coordination centre. Local swabbing centres are also still operational and can be accessed in line with current arrangements but not all are testing asymptomatic staff. In addition, there are mobile testing units, run by military colleagues rotating around different locations. The national testing centres are based at Ipswich, Stansted, Peterborough and Milton Keynes.

Remember, your COVID 19 Leads are there to help you and they are in the list below;

Location/Sector	COVID Lead	Email
Beds and Luton	Craig Borett	craig.borett@eastamb.nhs.uk
Cambs and Peterborough	Rebecca Gration	rebecca.gration@eastamb.nhs.uk
Herts and West Essex	Sandra Blackshaw	sandra.blackshaw@eastamb.nhs.uk
Mid and South Essex	Vanessa Ince	vanessa.ince@eastamb.nhs.uk
Norfolk and Waveney	Rogan Day	rogan.day@eastamb.nhs.uk
Suffolk and North East Essex	Georgina Lovejoy	georgina.lovejoy@eastamb.nhs.uk
Air Operations	Tim Daniels	tim.daniels@eastamb.nhs.uk
Bedford AOC	Rebecca Cox	rebecca.cox@eastamb.nhs.uk
Chelmsford AOC	Simon Langley	simon.langley@eastamb.nhs.uk
Norwich AOC	Maria Nethercote	maria.nethercote@eastamb.nhs.uk
ECAT	Maria Nethercote	Maria.nethercote@eastamb.nhs.uk
HART	Gary Perkiss	gary.perkiss@eastamb.nhs.uk

 

The internal COVID 19 Leads are listed below;

Sector/Business unit	COVID Lead	Email
IM&T	Vanessa Strutt	vanessa.strutt@eastamb.nhs.uk
Fleet/Estates – Operations Support	Amanda Flute	amanda.flute@eastamb.nhs.uk
HR/Recruitment/Exec	Sudha Pavanakumar	Sudha.Pavanakumar@eastamb.nhs.uk
Medical Directorate/ Clinical Quality / Patient Experience	Lewis Andrews Lesley Hamilton	lewis.andrews@eastamb.nhs.uk  lesley.hamilton@eastamb.nhs.uk
Finance/Procurement/Supplies/ Business & Partnerships	Beth Owen Heather Madden	bethany.owen@eastamb.nhs.uk  heather.madden@eastamb.nhs.uk
Training & Education	Emma Painter	emma.painter@eastamb.nhs.uk
Governance team / Exec admin	Sharon Chapman	sharon.chapman@eastamb.nhs.uk
Strategy/PMO	Peter Mercer	peter.mercer@eastamb.nhs.uk

 

Please find the Swab Testing FAQ’s here.

If you have any questions, which are not on the FAQ page, please call or e-mail;

Teresa Church   07803 500425          teresa.church@eastamb.nhs.uk

Andrew Gay       07590 442524          andrew.gay@eastamb.nhs.uk

Nicola Young     07769 154224          nicola.young@eastamb.nhs.uk

 

Published 19th May 2020