Uit die hearing in UK Parliament
Q66 Peter Grant:
Thank you. I will come back to Baroness Harding. Earlier
on, you spoke about the assurance and security being given to a number
of people by the provision of lateral flow testing. How concerned are you
about the reportedly very high level of false negative results coming from
those tests?
Baroness Harding:(Executive Chair, NHS Test and Trace, and Chair of NHS Improvement)
I think the lateral flow tests are a very useful
additional tool in our testing technology armoury. They are not a
substitute for PCR tests, but they are much faster. They give you a 30-
minutes or less read out of whether you are positive or negative, which
means that they can be very effective when used in conjunction with PCR
tests in care homes, for example. They provide added and very rapid
information that would not be available through other testing technology.
It is important that we use each of the different types of test in the
appropriate way—no one test does everything—but lateral flow tests are a
very useful additional way of finding more people who have the disease
but do not know that they have it at all.
Q67 Peter Grant:
How do you then ensure that we do not create a problem
from the unknown number of people who have got the disease who have
just been told they probably haven’t? Doesn’t it concern you that that
gives them a false sense of security?
Baroness Harding:
Well, of course, without lateral flow testing of the
scale that we are now rolling out across the country none of the people
who would be taking lateral flow tests would know at all, so any test that
helps us find more people who do not have any symptoms, do not know
that they have disease: any test that helps us find those people is additive
to our fight against Covid. I think you are absolutely right that it is
important that we are being clear what these tests are, and what they are
not, which is why if you do have symptoms it is very important that you
come forward to an NHS Test and Trace symptomatic testing site and
come forward for a PCR test. So they need to be seen in the round, not on
their own.