Three in ten negative coronavirus tests for NHS staff could be wrong, doctor's union warns

A doctor's union fears tests are giving hospital workers negative results even though they're still infectiousAnd the union are now urging the Government to change the rules so that doctors and nurses need two negative tests to return to work - to prevent hospitals becoming ‘hotspots’ of infection.

Samples are taken using a swab - which resemble a large cotton bud - from deep inside the nose and throat before being sent off to a lab for testing.Coronavirus tests are key to getting a clearer idea of the scale of the outbreak in the UK and getting a handle on it. The NHS is currently using antigen tests in hospitals to determine if someone is currently infected with Covid-19.

Anyone who has already had the illness is presumed to be immune to getting it again - at least, in the intermediate term. These tests are being developed by several different firms and Public Health England is also working on its own test.Most labs use a method called the polymerase chain reaction , which takes several hours to get a result.When quizzed on the false negative rates of these tests in Parliament earlier this month, Nadine Dorries, the health minister for patient safety, claimed the Government was currently using eight different tests that are “clinically validated and have high levels of performance”.

There are significant safety concerns around false negatives, not just in terms of infection control but also mental health and impact on recovery.

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