The UK may be ‘weeks behind’ its target of 500,000 tests a day due to a shortage of vital chemicals and analysing machines, it has been revealed.
Boris Johnson pledged to more than double current capacity from 260,000 by the end of October despite backlogs in laboratories and Britons being asked to drive hundreds of miles to get a swab.
But it appears the drive to boost testing will not be delivered as manufacturers cannot make enough chemical reagents and analyser machines in time.
Helen Dent, the Chief Operating Officer of the British In Vitro Diagnostics Association (Bivda) warned the Guardian there would be ‘a lag’ between the Government’s deadline and the industry’s ability to meet it.
‘If there was a steady order based on forecast numbers of tests that people are expecting, there would be a steady supply,’ she said.
‘But the manufacturing times for both reagents and analysers for the increased number of tests that are planned have a bit of a lag.
‘The lag is about a few weeks. It’s a supply chain lag in that everything is based on forecasts.
‘So when there’s a forecast for a certain number of tests, the supply chain adjusts to that. And when the forecast is changed, the supply chain adjusts to that. The lag develops when there’s a new forecast, but then it (supply) catches up.’
She added: ‘But they have been ordered and they will arrive.’
TThe Government is understood to be aiming to expand capacity in hospitals, with £500million invested in doubling the testing capacity at 16 NHS trusts.
More than 300 analyser machines are on order, which can process 200 to 300 tests a day, and boost capacity to 60,000 to 90,000.
Talking about his testing target in early September, the Prime Minister told a Downing Street press conference: ‘Up until now, if you think about it, we’ve been using testing primarily to identify people who are positive so that we can isolate them from the community and protect high-risk groups. That will continue to be our priority.
‘We are working hard to increase our testing capacity to 500,000 tests a day by the end of October.
‘But in future, in the near future, we hope, we want to start using testing to identify people who are negative, who don’t have coronavirus, who are not infectious, so we can allow them to behave in a more normal way in the knowledge that they can’t infect anyone else with the virus.’
Responding to reports the Government will miss its testing target, the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) said in a statement: ‘We are on track to have capacity for 500,00 tests per day by the end of October. We have a planned supply of reagent, allowing us to increase capacity in NHS laboratories.
‘We are also automating parts of the process, installing new machines, hiring more permanent staff, opening new labs and investing in new technology to process results faster.’
The Government has had its feet held to the fire over coronavirus testing, after its booking system ran out of appointments in all ten hotspot areas in England and MPs demanded to know why their constituents were being told to drive hundreds of miles to get tested.
Matt Hancock said the Government would launch a ‘prioritisation’ list to avoid the issue, with NHS staff pushed to the front of the queue.
Baroness Dido Harding revealed last week that there were problems in accessing tests because demand was standing at ‘three to four times’ capacity, and said no one had predicted the sudden surge in demand.
This drew heavy criticism from the media, Labour and other corners who all said it was clear that demand would surge once children went back to school and parents returned to their offices.