In July Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) established a Staff Testing Team in response to the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on our care homes and the need to put in place weekly COVID-19 testing arrangements for staff.  

This service is now in the process of transferring to the Regional Testing Hub that is a centralised model across Scotland allowing our team to be disbanded.  It is important to acknowledge the work the staff have undertaken during this challenging period and thank them for their hard work and commitment.

Initially the team covered staff in adult care homes across NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) then expanded to include older people care homes for West Dunbartonshire HSCP and Glasgow City HSCP including our five super-homes.

A range of business administrative staff from both NHS and social care volunteered to support this new team and relocated to Barr Street Clinic where the COVID-19 Clinic was located.

Health care support staff were also seconded to support the setting up and distribution of COVID-19 testing kits.  Business Managers and Clinical Leads were involved in developing and managing the infrastructure, processes, training and development of this new service.  Significant assistance was also provided from colleagues in other HSCPs, Commissioning, E Health, NHS Transport and Labs.

Business administration staff worked closely with care homes and established arrangements that enabled the weekly provision of staff information to enable orders for testing kits to be generated and delivered.  This resulted in weekly COVID-19 testing arrangements for staff with results provided within 48hrs.

The Staff Testing Team also supported the staff testing requirements within our Mental Health Inpatient wards for a 10 week period while TrakCare was rolled out and established local arrangements.

Susan Thomson, Project Manager said: “The Staff Testing Service has provided assurance for both the health board and the local authorities along with reducing the risk for care homes of COVID-19 outbreaks. This service has been key in the provision of COVID-19 testing within care homes, allowing staff regular access to testing and 7,000 kits to be issued on a weekly basis to care homes, helping to keep the staff and residents safe during the Pandemic. The team have shown patience and professionalism when problems arose operating as a joint team to deliver a tremendous service.”