IBMS response to ‘Living with COVID’

Overview

Whilst many will welcome the return to pre-pandemic living outlined in the white paper, we must take a cautious approach to ‘normalisation’. Although you cannot test your way out of a pandemic, testing can be used to understand and limit the spread of a virus. The removal of free testing at scale - both polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and lateral flow devices (LFDs) - will compromise population health surveillance and our individual ability to limit any future spread of COVID-19. Therefore, the capability to resume testing at scale, and the associated workforce support, must be part of the Government’s contingency plan.

Testing

From 1 April, the Government will no longer provide free universal symptomatic and asymptomatic testing for the general public in England (there will be limited symptomatic testing available for a small number of yet to be confirmed at-risk groups and social care staff).

With the Government now only encouraging “safer behaviours” and there being no way of tracking an accurate infection rate of the currently circulating virus, this could lead to false public confidence and then an upswing in the infection rate.

The pace at which the vaccination programme was rolled out has meant that we have a population with a good level of immunity. This could all change in the event of a mutation that enables the virus to escape the protection the vaccine provides. Such a situation will lead to an increased infection rate without the systems and infrastructure which are currently in place to help to control the spread, very much like the early days of the pandemic.

While mass testing was always a temporary measure to help mitigate the worst outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is our position that there must be a plan in place to return to full scale testing at pace in the event of a new variant of concern or to respond to the next pandemic.

Workforce

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of laboratory tests and laboratory professionals within healthcare. As COVID-19 testing at scale ceases, it is vital that our diagnostic services are reinforced and supported so that they can effectively deal with the healthcare backlog, COVID-19 related illness and maintain a pandemic resilient service for the future.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic our microbiology, virology and infection control teams continued to support patients and the public despite many Trusts being unable to fill microbiology posts, and the resulting workforce pressures. Capacity will always be required in this vital area and the current staffing shortfall must be urgently addressed.

Diagnostics laboratories will now have to face the huge amount of work involved in dealing with the backlog of elective care caused by COVID-19 and the Government must recognise the biomedical science profession’s great contribution to controlling the spread of COVID-19 by investing in the biomedical science workforce.

A thank you to the biomedical science profession

Thank you to the biomedical scientists, clinical scientists, advanced practitioners and medical laboratory assistants who, alongside maintaining a full diagnostic service, have made mass testing for COVID-19 a reality. Over the last couple of years, your brave and tireless efforts have enabled the UK to mitigate the worst of a global pandemic. We could not have done it without you – you are the vital heart of healthcare.



[This statement has been press released and sent to all IBMS media and political contacts.]