Care Homes: Covid-19 Testing

Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle Excerpts

Thursday 14th May 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bethell]

I completely acknowledge that one of the most horrible aspects of this disease is that it targets those who are most vulnerable and live closely to each other. Care homes are therefore a priority. I also acknowledge that we started with a very low base of diagnostic testing and have had to work extremely hard to build that up. But now that that capacity is there, we are focusing it on care homes and using innovative methods to get those tests directly to people. We could not be working harder to get the right people tested in the care home sector.

[Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP)]

NHS England recommends to staff that if they have symptoms after a negative coronavirus swab test they do not return to work, given the estimates of false negatives of up to 30%. But the Government’s official advice to someone with a negative test, in Our Plan to Rebuild, says:

“If a negative test is returned, then isolation is no longer required.”


What is the Minister’s advice to care home workers after a negative coronavirus swab test?

[Lord Bethell]

No one working in the NHS should go to work if they feel ill or have a temperature. That is true for anyone working on the front line, but it is not necessarily true for people who work in normal workplaces.