This week is National Pathology Week (2-8 November) and we have never been prouder of our pathology teams across the South East who are at the very heart of the NHS and the Covid response.

Across our region, teams have been working around the clock to deliver outstanding care for our patients and to ensure that testing and diagnosis happens as quickly as possible.

Recently Berkshire and Surrey Pathology Services (BSPS) recognised that having COVID-19 test results as rapidly as possible would mean that A&E patients could be admitted quickly and treated in the correct part of the hospital. To do this, they bought the testing facility to the frontline.

To cut down the time taken to transport the swab to the lab, they set up dedicated rooms to run tests in four A&E departments and one maternity unit across the four Trusts that the network supports (Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust and Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust). Once a swab is taken from a patient, the team aim to have it in the analysing machine within 11 minutes – including the ten minutes that the sample must wait to be deactivated.

Each week for four weeks, the team set up a new testing facility at a different hospital, with a fifth site brought in later. While one site was going live, the next site was being prepared.

To run the tests, the team rapidly recruited 42 new members of staff through the hospital bank, who were each partnered with a buddy to support them through their crucial first shifts.

By using DRW’s Samba II rapid testing machines, results are reported an average of 2 hours and 30 minutes after the swab is taken. Patients can then receive care in the correct part of the hospital (COVID or non-COVID) as quickly as possible, often within the four-hour waiting time for A&E.

“When the NHS needs to do something at speed it is very much capable of it. It’s just been a fantastic team effort across all of those sites,” says Point of Care Testing Speciality Lead, Katy Heaney.

We want to say a huge thank you to all our pathology staff across the South East. Their innovation, determination and resilience in responding to Covid is remarkable.