Routine Covid Testing Of Hospital Discharges To Care Homes To End In April
The government is to end routine COVID testing for hospital patients discharged into care homes from April 1.
Health minister Maria Caulfield confirmed the decision in a written statement on Monday March 25 stating that the move could be taken due to continued high levels of vaccination among at-risk groups, combined with wider access to treatments and the reduced impact of outbreaks.
Ms Caulfield added the shift was “to align with the approach for other respiratory illnesses”.Confirming the announcement, Dame Jenny Harries, chief executive of UKHSA, said: “Thanks to protection from the combination of vaccination, natural immunity and effective treatments, Covid-19 is now a relatively mild disease for most people.
“This allows testing programmes to be brought in line with the management of other respiratory illnesses such as flu, while still protecting those most at risk.
“While this is an important milestone for us in learning to live with Covid-19 as with other respiratory illnesses, the virus hasn’t gone away and can still cause severe illness for some.
“UKHSA will continue to work closely with the Department for Health and Social Care and with NHS England to closely monitor respiratory illness rates and characteristics through our critical science and surveillance programmes.”
The move will include the abandoning of lateral flow testing to manage outbreaks in higher-risk settings. However, free polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing to determine the cause of an acute respiratory infection outbreak in higher risk settings, where deemed appropriate by a local UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) health protection team (HPT), will remain to test for a wide range of respiratory viruses.
An estimated 25,000 people were discharged from hospitals to care homes without testing at the height of the Covid pandemic between mid-March and mid-April 2020, and remains one of the most controversial aspects of the pandemic.
This failure to test meant that vulnerable patients often went straight from hospital to a care home without a test, and then spread the virus to others.
Professor Martin Green of Care England said: “People who live in care homes are often living with many health conditions and are susceptible to infectious diseases. “It is for this reason that we would like to see testing continue when patients are being discharged from hospital.”
“If we see an end to such testing, the risk of people coming from hospital with asymptomatic COVID and transmitting it to other residents could have serious consequences.”
