Who Will Pay For Lateral Flow Tests Next Week?
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- Published: Wednesday, 30 March 2022 15:37
- Written by Peter Ingle
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The spiralling cost pressures on dental practices will ratchet up again on Thursday as free Lateral Flow tests stop being available for routine COVID-19 testing.
Officially the scheme ends on March 31st, but getting a collection code to use at the pharmacy does not guarantee that they will have any left, and the postal delivery service increasingly has no availability. To help discourage testing, if you try to order a test kit using the GOV.UK website, almost the first thing one sees is a large message declaring that, “most tests are now needed for people at higher risk.”
As expected, the DOH have displayed impeccable timing. In the UK, week on week cases of COVID -19 have shown double figure increases, hospital admissions are also on the rise, and there is the alarming return to lockdowns in China. Once again, most of the public are out and about, unmasked, and getting up close and personal with lots of strangers. As vaccine immunity wanes, what could possibly go wrong?
The lack of any plan to fill the gap in provision for those working in healthcare has not escaped the gaze of some MP’s. Vivendra Sharma the Labour MP for Ealing and Southall, was able to secure a debate in the Commons on the subject of ‘Lateral Flow tests in Healthcare Settings’, as the deadline approaches. During the debate MPs expressed concerns about the effect of ending free tests, on the healthcare sector. There was specific reference to dentists, “whose industry is struggling with the pandemic, while they are driven by targets in NHS contracts that they cannot meet.” Mr Sharma rightly pointed out that patients would now be less likely to test before appointments. Maggie Throup, (Conservative, Erewash) the Parliamentary Under- Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, responded for the government. After providing a great deal of self-congratulatory but not very relevant background she resorted to the well-worn prop of “relying on the expert advice of our medical and scientific advisers.” She would later in the debate resort to extolling the benefits of ventilation, reminding all to “catch it, bin it, kill it,” and inevitably, handwashing. After a good deal more of this generic material she concluded by saying that, ”limited free testing will be available for a small number of high-risk groups, the plans for which would be set out, “soon.”
The guidance that NHS staff are required to test twice weekly remains, with no indication that it is about to change. Inevitably team members will expect the practice to provide them with the required tests. Providing the entire team, bearing in mind dentistry’s reliance on many part timers, with their two tests each week, will be a significant added cost. At the moment Boots best price is £7.90 for four tests. Practices can expect to be making extra trips to the local pharmacy as dental dealers have no plans to sell tests. Dental Directory and Wright Cottrell do not offer, or currently plan to carry, lateral flow tests. Schein, who did sell tests earlier in the pandemic, subsequently withdrew them, and have no plans to offer them again. Practice owners may find that they accumulate a lot of Advantage points.
In the commons debate, Maggie Throup, as ministers often do, used the expression, “I reassure the house.” Dental teams are most unlikely to be feeling particularly reassured.
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