Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason routine covid-19 testing is not being made available to asymptomatic private practitioner physiotherapists treating people in care homes.
We recognise the need to ensure professionals are able to visit care homes safely. Regular asymptomatic testing is currently being rolled out to all patient-facing National Health Service staff.
While this will cover the majority of professionals visiting care homes, we recognise the important role played by professionals who visit care homes who are not included in the NHS staff testing, such as private practitioner physiotherapists. We are using our learning from our previous ‘Visiting Professionals’ pilot to determine the best approach for asymptomatic testing professionals who are not NHS staff.