Lancaster University and the NHS join forces to combat Covid-19

Lancaster University and the NHS have joined forces to combat Covid-19.

Lancaster University has offered the use of its own labs to increase the number of tests for Covid-19 among NHS staff and patients following an approach from Morecambe Bay's hospital trust.

University staff from Biomedical and Life Sciences (BLS) in the Faculty of Health and Medicine are now working with NHS staff from the diagnostic labs in University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust (UHMBT), using testing kits which are supplied by the NHS.

The diagnostic testing has been validated and the facility has been fully operational since April 27.

Dr Shahedal Bari, Medical Director, UHMBT, said: "We were delighted that our partner and local university came forward to help us to carry out the tests. It is fantastic that the organisation with an outstanding track record of research and medical training, which trains many of our doctors of the future, has been able to help the population in this challenging time."

Prof Paul Bates, Head of BLS, thanked everyone at Lancaster University who had volunteered to help the NHS.

“This is a really positive development that we can all be proud of, making a real contribution to fighting the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.

There is an urgent need to help both with rapid diagnosis of suspected Covid-19 cases presenting at hospitals as well as for NHS staff with possible infections. Being able to ramp up NHS testing may enable NHS staff to return to work sooner if the test is negative, while NHS patient samples will also be tested at the lab with a rapid turnaround.