BIOMEDICAL 18 THE SCIENTIST
SCIENCE Lighthouse labs
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n investigation was launched in October after a COVID-19 testing laboratory, mistakenly told up to 45,000 people that they did not have the disease. Testing at the Wolverhampton lighthouse laboratory was suspended and an investigation launched. The issue came to light when people had positive lateral flow tests, but negative follow-up PCR results from the lab between 8 September and 12 October. The error meant that thousands of people infected with COVID-19 were wrongly told to stop isolating, and could have infected others. When the news broke, the IBMS released a statement that publicly
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reiterates the need for a regulated workforce and laboratory accreditation for mass testing centres. It said: “As the professional body for biomedical science, the IBMS expects any workforce undertaking diagnostic testing for COVID-19 to meet the same minimum requirements as any other medical laboratory workforce that is involved in diagnostic testing. “Our members’ established services have some of the highest quality testing programmes in the world. This has been achieved through the implementation of stringent training and registration processes for staff and robust quality management systems for testing – both of which have proven to provide highquality and safe services for patients. “The mass testing centres set up during
the pandemic must assure the same quality of testing and competence of staff as pathology laboratories in the NHS and private healthcare sector.” The statement came just two months after the IBMS Council delivered a position statement on the need for registered staff and accreditation in laboratories doing COVID-19 testing (see box, overleaf, for an extract).
What are lighthouse labs? Lighthouse laboratories – which take their names from the PCR testing technology that uses fluorescent light to detect the virus – are high-throughput facilities dedicated to COVID-19 testing for NHS Test and Trace. Each lighthouse laboratory has been reviewed by experts and is supported by
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