Doubts over the accuracy of rapid result Covid tests are being raised — just as their introduction to the Isle of Wight was being suggested.
Last week, the Isle of Wight Council announced it had requested the use of lateral flow tests, but were yet to decide where they would be used.
Lateral flow tests pick up cases of Coronavirus where a person is not showing symptoms and provide the results within an hour. Their accuracy was reported by News OnTheWight last week.
Indoor visits to care homes
With the easing of lockdown restrictions and the Island falling into Tier One, indoor visits to care homes can take place where a visitor is regularly tested and other infection control measures are adhered to.
The screening method, encouraged by the government, is being rolled out using lateral flow tests, but the manager of Isle of Wight Healthwatch, Joanna Smith, asked whether the Island’s director of public health Simon Bryant thought that kind of testing was safe enough to facilitate visits to care homes.
Bryant: Tests not 100 per cent accurate
At a meeting of the Isle of Wight Council’s policy and scrutiny committee for health and social care yesterday (Monday), Mr Bryant said while the tests were not 100 per cent accurate, and accuracy could be dependent on where the test is taken and who delivers it, false positives and false negatives also need to be taken into account.
He said:
“We know that care home visiting is really vital for the health and wellbeing of residents and those wanting to visit.
“While someone takes a lateral flow test and it may come up as negative that means the person should carry on visiting in the right PPE, the right social distancing.”
Back up with PCR test
Mr Bryant also said if someone tests positive from a lateral flow test, they should get the case confirmed through a PCR test — those conducted at official centres, including at Newclose Cricket Club.
Director of the Isle of Wight Care Partnership, Ian Bennett, however, said the accuracy of lateral flow tests had been an issue raised over the last few days, but it was comments from the Association of Directors of Public Health which called for ‘extreme caution, particularly in settings with vulnerable people’ which caused concern among members.
Mr Bennett said:
“Our members don’t see how we can safely manage a return to visiting at any substantial level until we have those assurances [the tests are accurate].
“One of the big issues is the fact that, unlike the NHS, care homes are not indemnified against being sued for a Covid outbreak which puts us in a particularly risky position.”
Missing a third of cases
Local authorities in Greater Manchester and Sheffield have stopped using flow tests after data from the pilot in Liverpool suggested that type of testing missed nearly a third of cases.
Mr Bennett also raised concerns about resources needed to use the lateral flow testing.
He said:
“We have had providers who have spoken about having one full-time member of staff on all day just doing testing because it is quite an onerous process.”
Quarter of residents in one home died due to C19
Mr Bennett, the operational director of six care homes on the Island, said he knew of the massive impact the outbreaks of the virus have had on care providers.
In one of the six homes he oversees, which did have an outbreak, half of the residents became infected with the virus and a quarter of those subsequently died, having other medical issues as well.
A third of care homes on the Island had registered coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic.
This article is from the BBC’s LDRS (Local Democracy Reporter Service) scheme, which OnTheWight is taking part in. Some alterations and additions may be been made by OnTheWight. Ed
