Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that covid-19 tests are available for patients who require a negative test in order to begin treatment for other conditions.

Patients currently awaiting treatment under the elective care pathway for non-urgent day case or overnight stay are able to undertake a COVID-19 test via the elective care COVID-19 home test service. Any suitable elective care patient can be submitted for a test and this service also covers parents who need to accompany their child to the hospital and partners who need to attend elective caesarean births with the mother.

The patient receives specific elective care test instructions to ensure they take the test three days before their procedure date, in line with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s clinical guidance.

A courier then picks up the test from the patient and delivers the sample to a laboratory where it is processed, ensuring a rapid turnaround time to result. When the sample is processed, the result is issued simultaneously to the patient and hospital via SMS and e-mail respectively.