Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust: Coronavirus

(asked on 13th May 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the North East having the highest covid-19 infection rates in the UK, for what reason no covid-19 testing kits were allocated to Queen Elizabeth Gateshead Microbiology department in week the commencing 11 May 2020.


Answered by
Nadine Dorries Portrait
Nadine Dorries
This question was answered on 10th June 2020

Whilst across the United Kingdom there are enough testing supplies to deliver our testing strategy, our testing supplies team are working with the regional pathology networks to address any localised supply issues as and when they arise. We are ensuring the required capacity is available across the local network, and making sure tests are sent to Pillar 2 when appropriate to make best use of the available capacity across the system. We will continue to build increased resilience across the National Health Serivce for sites reliant on proprietary systems through supporting the pathology networks and by supporting deployment of open source reagents nationally.

Reticulating Splines