Hampshire's ambulance service to test patients for Covid-19 before visiting hospital

Paramedics at South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) will now test patients for COVID-19 at home, before taking them into hospital.

The pioneering initiative - using lateral flow tests to also check those without symptoms - is designed to speed up handovers and release crews more quickly.

The test involves placing a swab in the nose and/or mouth which is then mixed with a solution that looks for virus fragments. Droplets are then placed onto the device and a result is delivered within 30 minutes. 

The pilot study, which will start with patients in Oxford, will see lateral flow tests administered by a trained ambulance crew to patients on the decision to transfer them to hospital. The trial involves all patients over 18 - both with or without symptoms.

The process will ensure a patient has test results on or very soon after arrival to inform secondary care clinicians which COVID-19 care pathway should be followed. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Dr John Black, Medical Director at SCAS, said: “The pandemic saw hospitals quickly arrange separate pathways for receiving patients, with red/COVID-19 for patients reporting symptoms and with suspected or confirmed infection, and green/non-COVID for patients not reporting symptoms and without suspected or confirmed infection.

“When these tests are carried out on arrival at hospital, social distancing requirements and the wait for results may contribute to ambulance handover delays and a bottleneck in patient flow through the care pathways. 

“We expect the use of lateral flow tests pre-hospital to have a direct and positive impact on reducing handover delays, improving bottleneck of patients in the red/COVID care pathway queue and increase patient hospital flow.” 

He added: “This is a small study to begin with in Oxford, so it will not happen with every patient transfer across SCAS, however, further roll out to a wider area will be considered if the concept is proved through the pilot and there is sufficient access to lateral flow devices.”